


Be My Dangerous Girl

by cloverfield



Series: Are You Gonna Be My Girl [1]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: AU, F/F, Genderbending, KuroFai, KuroFai Olympics, Romantic Comedy, Rule 63, Sassmouth, Swearing, Team LOL, action movie violence, olymfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:40:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloverfield/pseuds/cloverfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Comedy vs. Drama Olympics fic; in which Fai has one hell of a week when she has a run in with Ms. Tall, Dark & Deadly, and her charming young employer, and Hokuto is mostly to blame for everything that follows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be My Dangerous Girl

**Author's Note:**

> GENDERSWAP IS BEST. I picked up this prompt for Team LOL for the 2014 KuroFai Olympics, and I did not regret a second of it, this was so fun. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it!

If, at the start of the last week of summer, you had sat Fai D. Flourite ( _PhD student, part-time babysitter for her landlord’s crazy cats, and barista extraordinaire_ ) down on a sunny bench outside the cute little cafe where she worked, and explained in no uncertain terms that Sunday night would find her crouching for cover behind a buffet table in the five-star gourmet dining hall of the most ridiculously upscale casino in town, as bullets flew while the gorgeous, glorious goddess of war next to her ( _tall, dark and deadly enough to make even James Bond blush, with her cocktail dress ripped in a jagged mess up to her thigh and her only weapons the polished silver cutlery_ ) took down three armed men with a two spoons, a salad fork, a serving platter and a discarded apron respectively, she would have laughed at you.  
  
Stared for a long while, suggested that perhaps you should sell the idea to an open-minded film studio that wouldn’t mind making their action hero an Amazonian bodyguard -and while secretly picturing the delicious hot mess the resulting film would have been, including the NC-17 scenes the censors would have to leave out for the sake of the children no less- possibly offered you a free espresso as a congratulations on the depths of your imagination-  
  
-but ultimately, she would have laughed.  
  
And if you  _had_  taken the time to inform her as such, the only possible response she could have given when said prediction actually unfolded six and a half days later, thanks to the keen sense of humour the Gods are known to possess -if by ‘keen’ one means ‘as cheerfully cruel as a toddler with a magnifying glass on a backyard patio full of ants’, and we do- would have been “oh, fuck me  _sideways_.” Considering at this point her hair was caked with soup, her new -and ridiculously beautiful- dress was irreversibly singed from a mad dash through the kitchens, and the dangerous young thing earning her paycheque with extreme and violent enthusiasm beside her did not seem to know or care that she was now and would forever after be the subject of Fai’s most fevered night-time fantasies, her statement would have been entirely justified.  
  


* * *

It all started -as the workweek usually does- on a Monday morning.  
  
Fai had managed, through sheer bad luck, to pull the short straw of ‘opening the shop at half past five while still hung-over and desperately wishing you were anywhere else’ for the third time running in as many weeks and while flipping the bird at Kimihiro’s delighted cackles had been somewhat satisfying, it was cold comfort indeed when she stepped inside the freezing shop just after the arsecrack of dawn, her breath still fogging in the cool air and her teeth chattering violently. The last gasp of summer left most afternoons pantingly hot, but the mornings were crisp with the touch of autumn: frosted grass crunching under foot and breath fountaining from between chapped lips in cloudy plumes, and the several layers of stretchy, threadbare sweater she’d wrapped around bony shoulders barely did anything to stop her from shivering.  
  
It didn’t stop her thoughts from lurching from murderous - _I will cheerfully stab the first over-privileged lawyer to walk in here and demand a vanilla latte, half soy, half non-fat, sugar free, no foam, extra shot, one splenda, even if I have to do it with a handful of dinky plastic stirrers_ \- to mournful - _oh God why did I ever leave my bed, my beautiful, blanketed bed, why why why_ \- and back again as she tripped the alarm and set the coffee machine to humming, but at least by the time the sun had properly risen and she’d cut her teeth on two shots of hazelnut espresso she was feeling vaguely human again.  
  
Which was why, at a quarter-past nine when her favourite customer burst through the doors with all the considerable aplomb he could bring to bear, she actually managed a grin.  
  
“Oh,  _darling_ , I never get tired of your welcome-back smile,” said Hokuto, sighing happily as he leant over the front counter and caring not a bit for the way his exquisitely hand-tailored suit rumpled at the elbows. “The way it lights up those beautiful eyes! Bluer than the sky!”  
  
“It’s overcast today- that’s not hard,” laughed Fai. “But I appreciate the thought.”  
  
Hokuto Sumeragi, dapper young man and designer wunderkind for  _Babylon_ , the most successful fashion magazine on the west coast, had been coming into the Cat’s Eye Cafe as long as Fai had been working there- and each and every time the pint-sized powerhouse walked in the door, he had yet another flirtatious advance to make. It couldn’t be denied it was flattering; he might have only been nineteen, but Hokuto was quite possibly the cutest young thing Fai had ever seen, with the soft, sweet smile and dreamy eyes many an actress would certainly maim if not outright kill for, not to mention a wicked streak that went right down to the bone. That naughty little spark flashed as he reached for Fai’s hand, curving it gently around a smooth cheek that had never known the touch of a razor and turning his head to press a kiss to her palm. Fai was certain of three things in life -death, taxes, and the knowledge that Hokuto was so queer he probably bled rainbows- so there was no way she could’ve taken it as anything but the tease it was meant to be.  
  
“You know, I’ve been looking for someone special to model for my Autumn Collection- feel like making a career change?”  
  
“And put your sister out of a job?” As long as Hokuto had been designing clothes, Subaru had been wearing them, Hokuto’s twin the only model capable of putting up with her brother’s sometimes terrifying but almost always inspired fashion whims. Bemused, Fai shook her head and tugged her hand gently free. “Barista is enough of a career for me.” Which wasn’t exactly true, considering Fai was still studying for her PhD in Advanced Molecular Chemistry, but still. “You want a  _Kick up the Arse_?”   
  
“As always, love.” He winked, brushing back the fringe of dark hair that framed his face with one dainty hand. “I’d drive all the way across the city for coffee like yours, no matter what you call it.” The Cat’s Eye’s drinks menu may have had an, ahem, _unusual_  naming scheme to be sure, each title something dreamed up by the store’s drunk-and-disorderly owner on one of his many benders -and if there ever was something to pity Kimihiro for, it was definitely her crazy uncle- but their coffee was good, if oddly named, and by noon it wasn’t unusual for the place to be pumping with power-suited executives and bohemian student-protestors alike.  
  
Fai snorted, clacking the spout into place and tamping down two shots of honey-roasted blend. “You work at the massive publishing complex across the road, and even if you didn’t, your driver takes you everywhere, Hokuto. It doesn’t have quite the same effect if you’re chauffeured around in the back of a limo, you know.”  
  
“Ah, so true, so true and yet so deliciously cruel!” Hokuto sighed blissfully. “I do love a girl with a mean streak.” He dropped his dainty chin into his hand, fluttering his eyelashes up at Fai. “Besides, if the  _limousine_  gets you hot and bothered, sweetheart, you should have seen who came swanning on through the lobby this morning-”  
  
The tinny jingle of the doorbell -a strand of red ribbon, thickly strung with cat-bells- cut off whatever else he might have said, and it was instinct that forced Fai into a cheery smile as she tipped her head towards the doorway to chime out “Welcome to the Cat’s Eye! Make yourself at home!” as she did every single time a customer walked into the cafe. It was such an ingrained reaction that she could even do it with her hands full of beverage and her eyes closed- which meant that when Fai actually did look up from capping Hokuto’s drink with creamy froth and a dust of chocolate, it was to meet the gaze of her new customers with something that could have been shock.  
  
“Hello,” said Fai cheerfully, handing Hokuto his drink with a flourish; even in the grip of such a stunning burst of uncharacteristic emotion she was a trained professional, and her please-buy-my-coffee-and-don’t-forget-to-tip smile was something she could plaster over her face even while hung-over  _and_  suffering crippling menstrual cramps, let alone anything so mild as mere surprise. And true to form, once she was rolling, it was easy to continue on with her working patter; regardless of the fact a small part of her brain was currently a gibbering mess.  _Oh, sweet holy fuck. _“Table for two, or would you like some coffee to go?”  
  
The young man ( _impeccably dressed in a cardigan and bowtie, fresh-faced and all of seventeen if he was a day_ ) for whom the door was being held open for blinked and then smiled, an expression of such heart-warming sweetness that Fai barely caught the subtle twinkle of mischief in those big, liquid eyes. “Oh, hello! Yes, a table would be nice- don’t you think, Kurogane?” Shiny black hair, bobbed into a shaggy style, swung about his face neatly as he tipped it up -and up, and up,  _wow_ \- to look at the woman slightly behind and to the left of him, and the trembling hollow in Fai’s chest where her heart had once been was abruptly filled with fizzing strawberry champagne, bubbles popping and tickling delight all through her veins.  
 _  
Dear Santa, if I promise to be a very good girl and play nice with the corporate dipshits who buy my coffee and not kick anyone in the gonads who really doesn’t deserve it, may I please have that in my stocking this Christmas?_  
  
She was tall and dark and radiating the kind of menace that would sell like high-class perfume if only you could bottle it, and the long glossy fall of her ponytail trembled with the softest of waves as it slid over one broad shoulder, her face framed perfectly by the fall of her fringe. The cut of her suit was almost as sharp as her eyes as they glanced over Fai, leaving a tingling wash of heat in their wake, and lips that looked full and surprisingly soft parted gently, her voice a husky growl when she spoke. “This will do.”  
  
She stalked into the room as her young friend bounced up to the counter, and the subtle lines of a holster under her well-tailored suit ( _it had to be hand-fitted, definitely; cut and measured to fit perfectly, and the thought of someone having had their hands all over that gorgeous body made sweat break out on the nape of her neck_ ) matched the headpiece tucked discreetly into the shell of one ear to ratchet up Fai’s instant impression of  _striking and competent_  all the way up to  _professional bodyguard_  before she had space to blink.  
  
But the cutie-pie she’d brought in with her was gazing up at the menu with pure curious delight, and Hokuto -having sidled gently to the right to let them both draw close- was watching him with the eyes of someone not merely hungry but famished beyond belief, as though they had never actually seen food before this moment and here was a platter of unexpected triple-chocolate cheesecake, and Fai did ( _regrettably_ ) have a job to do.  
  
“Any idea what you’d like, or should I make a suggestion?”  
  
“Ooh,” said the boy happily, “what a wonderful naming scheme. I think I like the sound of number three; I’m in the mood for chocolate. I’ll have an  _Angel in a Leather Jacket_ , please.” The smile he turned on his bodyguard was nearly warm enough to melt that crisp exterior, though her eyes were still cool even as she turned towards him. “What will you have, Kurogane? And don’t say ‘nothing’, that’s boring. I’m not paying you to be  _boring_.”  
  
The exasperated look on Kurogane’s face was only there for a flicker of a millisecond, but it was there all the same, and Fai had to hide her bemused grin behind her pleasantly-bland-smile(tm). “A  _Notch on the Bedpost_ ,” she grunted, and the low register of that soft voice did wonderful things to Fai’s insides.  
 _  
Ooh, pick me! I volunteer, take me as tribute, I promise I’ll go willingly_. “Sure,” Fai said brightly, pointedly ignoring the quiver in her belly and her traitorous thoughts. “One shot or two?”  
  
“One. No milk, no cream. No sugar,” this last added while ignoring the dramatic sigh coming from her young companion.  
  
“Kuro _gane_ , it’s no fun if you don’t get any sugar!” he protested, and that outrageous pout  _had_  to be for show. Even Hokuto seemed impressed, his eyebrows disappearing neatly into his hair. “When’s the last time you ever let yourself live it up a little?”  
  
“Shut up and go sit down,” she grumbled, but the guarded affection in her voice very obviously undermined her scowl, and there was something so impossibly  _cute_  in the wobble of her eyebrows as she battled with her own expression. “Do you. Uh, do you have almond milk? I’ll have a splash of that,” she mumbled, turning away- and as soon as she was watching her charge all but skip over to the furthest table by the wall her spine straightened and her steps became purposeful once more. And also drew Fai’s gaze downwards with each determined stride.  
 _  
Oh God. Deadly and adorkable, with a perfect arse. I’m doomed._  
  
Fai forced herself to look away -really, it was like trying to tear apart Velcro with your teeth- and back to her coffee machine, falling into the instinctive motions of a barista at work with no thought whatsoever; as such, she nearly jumped and smacked her head on the tea shelf when Hokuto finally spoke up.  
  
“Well, break out the Crayolas and colour me tickled pink,” he purred. “That is one  _hell_  of a dangerous woman.”  
  
Fai agreed wholeheartedly; Kurogane moved like someone out of a Bond film. “I thought you liked boys.”  
  
“Oh, I do, boys are  _wonderful_ ,” said Hokuto absently, waving a dismissive hand as he sipped his coffee. He was still focused on the way Kurogane was insisting her young charge take the chair closest to the wall and placing herself between the young man and the door with the air of some large, predatory animal settling down on its haunches to wait for its prey to come close. The dreamy sigh Hokuto breathed out upon sight of this would not have been out of place on a regency heroine. “But, like grandmama used to say: as with rules and extended warranties, there are always exceptions in life. Mm, I’d bend that over a couch any day of the week,” he added lecherously, making Fai snort.  
  
“I highly doubt your grandmother ever said  _that_. Still, like to see you try- she’s more than a foot taller than you. She’d snap you in half like fabulously dressed twig. Which is what you are, when you get down to it.”  
  
“Flattery will get you nowhere, dear,” murmured Hokuto, leaning back on his elbows. “And really, it all depends on one’s perspective; a woman like that, she’s looking for someone to protect. I bet she’s softer than you’d think under that spiky shell. Like chestnuts- they get sweeter when you roast them.”  
  
And now Fai was picturing the woman in question lying spread out on a rug before a roaring fire, bare dusky skin gleaming with sweat and eyes aglow with hunger as the flame flickered in them, and it was  _really not helpful_  considering she was trying to juggle a tray with drinks and her own raging libido while keeping a firm grip on both. But before she could sweep past Hokuto -really, she was going to get him back for that one day, just as soon as she could come up with a plan evil enough that he wouldn’t just laugh in amusement- he grabbed a napkin and the sharpie stuck in the pocket of her apron and scribbled something down on it, folding it neatly in half and tucking it between the drinks.  
  
“Here, be a darling and pass that on, would you?” It was probably his phone number and something cheesy like ‘call me, sweetcheeks’. Of course.  
  
Fai sighed. “For which one?”  
  
“Either. Both. Though especially that cute little thing with the bowtie. I do so  _love_  innocents.” Considering the way the innocent in question was apparently driving his bodyguard up the wall if their hushed, snarky conversation was anything to go by, Fai rather thought Hokuto was underestimating his deviousness- though maybe that was a point in his favour; one could never quite tell with Hokuto. “I have to get back to my studio- models, don’t you know; anxious creatures one and all. But I’ll back tomorrow, as always. Ciao!”  
  
Fai made it a point not to watch him as he schmoozed out the door, forcing herself into her hi-my-name-is-Fai-and-I’ll-be-your-server-today persona and gathering her wits -frayed as they were around the edges- about her once more.  _Right. Drinks. Give the drinks to the customers and then retreat to the safety of the counter. Go go go._  
  
“Sorry about the wait,” Fai said when she reached the table, keeping her smile bland and her eyes away from the heaviness of Kurogane’s assessing gaze. “Here we are: an  _Angel in a Leather Jacket_  for the young master, and a  _Notch on the Bedpost_  for the lady. With almond milk,” she added, before she could stop herself, and the quick crinkle of what could have been gratitude at the corners of sharp eyes was totally worth the feeling she’d just been slapped speechless.  
  
“Thank you- oh, that smells so good! Doesn’t it smell fantastic, Kurogane?” came the cheerful chirp as he pushed his cardigan up to his elbows and cupped his mug in soft, white hands to take a greedy sip. “Mmmm, that cinnamon tastes  _divine_...”  
  
Kurogane rolled her eyes. “You and sweet things, brat. Thanks,” she added, looking up as Fai passed over her drink with a hand that was not shaking, thank you very much, and her eyebrows crinkled just a little as the napkin folded between their cups fell to the table. “Eh?”  
  
Before Fai could reach out and grab it back, she’d snatched it up with one hand -the movement startlingly swift and controlled, and  _wow_ , she was learning new things about her kinks everyday now, wasn’t she- and shaken it out, her eyes tracking sharp across the napkin and her expression melting into something carefully unreadable. It didn’t stop the colour from rising swiftly up her neck, though, a dull purple flush snaking up beneath the collar of her suit and the crisp knot of her black tie.  
  
Fai blinked, feeling suddenly uneasy.  _Holy shit, Hokuto, what did you write? Was it really appropriate to go propositioning the barely-legal boytoy for a booty call in front of his bodyguard? ...aaand now I’m thinking in alliterative terms. Fuckin’ A. Who knew a pretty face and tight arse was all I needed to scramble my brains but good. _  
  
“I’m sorry about that. Hokuto -the young man at the counter in the red suit from before?- asked me to pass it on to your friend here,” said Fai, even as the young man in question snatched the note from trembling fingers with a cheerful grin. “Don’t worry, he’s harmless, I promise,” she added, at the incredulous look Kurogane was giving her. “Mostly. He has good intentions, at least?”  
  
But maybe an apology wasn’t nearly enough, as a scowl broke like thunder over that gorgeous face, and a whoop of laughter came from the other side of the table.  
  
“My name’s Tomoyo,” said the young man happily, handing back the note with a flourish. Fai took it even as he kept speaking. “This is Kurogane, and the answer to your friend’s,  _mm_ , proposition -Hokuto, was it?- is yes, yes and oh so very  _yes_. I’m eighteen in two weeks, by the way,” Tomoyo added briskly, eyebrows waggling cheerfully as he delivered that non-sequitur, and leaving his bodyguard to choke on the apparently unwise sip of her coffee she’d just taken. Considering that statement made no sense whatsoever in the boundaries of what she understood, Fai was left confused and a little irritated, her eyes darting downwards to the scrawled spidery mess that was Hokuto’s handwriting before she could stop them.  
 _  
Hey sweetie, love your bowtie! Just so you know, the hot young thang working as a barista is single- is your fierce lady bodyguard on the prowl too? We should totally hook them up- and then hook us up, if you know what I mean. Call me if you’re legal! _read the note, complete with a winking little smiley face blowing a kiss and a phone number underlined twice for emphasis.  
  
Fai crumpled the napkin in her fist wordlessly, blunt nails tearing through soft paper as she crinkled her eyes shut and twisted her mouth into a poisonous smile.  _Hokuto, there are not even words for how dead you are going to be when I see you next. I’ll put rat poison in your coffee, I’ll lace your apple-pie-blueberry-muffin with cyanide, I’ll tell your boss you’ve been taking coffeebreaks every hour on the hour, I’ll tell Subaru you’re being mean to me, I’ll call your grandma-_  
  
“I am so very sorry,” was what Fai said though, and the sweet malice in her tone surprised even herself. “I honestly had no idea, and I promise it won’t happen again. Please, enjoy- your drinks are on the house this morning.”  
  
She swivelled neatly on the spot before Kurogane could do anything like open her mouth or yell, her face burning with shame and head swimming at the thought that, even as badly as the question had been asked, Tomoyo had said yes - _she’s single, she’s single, oh good God there is no one tapping that maybe I have a chance_ \- and squashed down the rush of confusion her conflicting emotions caused as she stomped towards the counter.  
  
Fuck, and it was only  _Monday_. With luck, they wouldn’t come into the cafe ever again and Fai could just swallow down her rage and get through the week with her head down. She didn’t need this kind of crap in her boring, perfectly structured life.  
  


* * *

They came in every day after that for the rest of the week, starting first thing on Tuesday morning, because fuck Fai’s life, seriously. Which was fine.  _Really._  
  
Fai was a grown woman and a professional; she could and would put on her big girl pants and just deal with it. ‘It’, of course, being the cheerful, fashionably geeky twink who had promptly decided that the Cat’s Eye was his new hangout and dragged his scowly, intimidating, utterly gorgeous, can-I-have-your-number-I-just-need-it-please-please-please bodyguard along for the ride while he made Fai’s life difficult in the cutest, most agreeable way possible. All he did was order drink after drink and work on his laptop, tipping generously all the while, and it wasn’t long before the clacking of the keyboard became just another stitch in the fabric of sound that made the Cat’s Eye feel so cosy.   
  
Kurogane, on the other hand, spent the whole time her charge was camped out at the furthest table from the counter -and the door, with proper line of sight for all exits and an easily defensible position near the kitchen- staring at Fai, her gaze fixed and piercing and her face unreadable.  
  
Which was such a contrast to how she was with her companion. It was so  _easy_  for Tomoyo to get her worked up, anger and frustration and exasperation and a begrudging kind of affection warring across her face in stunning succession with nearly every word he said, and it was obvious to anyone with eyes that their relationship was closer than merely ward and bodyguard. Hell, even Hokuto’s blatant and ridiculous come-on’s had done nothing to tease a even a  _smile_  from Kurogane, where a half-whispered comment from Tomoyo afterwards had made her grin sharkily, wonderful white teeth clearly on display as she chuckled.  
  
It was a beautiful sound, that laugh; soft and husky and rough around the edges, and hearing it felt like the edge of fur dragged over exposed skin. It made Fai shiver pleasantly every time she caught it, thinking of other ways and other places she would love to hear it. It also made her fucking  _jealous_ , which was stupid and pathetic, because she was not some moping teenager to be envious of the cute kid making the hot kid laugh while the only thing  _she_  seemed to be able to do was make the hot kid stare like she was some strange new life form, deserving of scrutiny. Especially since the cute kid was, well,  _cute_. Tomoyo was a darling, friendly and vivacious, and he tipped like he had cash to burn-  
  
-which, considering he had a  _bodyguard_  of all things, he probably did.  
  
So she felt jealous and terrible for feeling jealous, leaving her with a gut-gnawing kind of disappointment in herself for being petty and small when she was  _so much better than that_ , which meant she had to keep all her inner bitchiness hidden behind her best hi-I-work-in-the-service-industry smile and focus on not letting an inch of her inner kitty out to claw down the walls, which in turn was really kind of exhausting and even  _Kimihiro_  -short-sighted emotionally and literally as she was- was starting to notice, so.  
  
By the time Friday rolled around, Fai was just about ready to make a sacrifice of incense and virgins in the hopes that  _someone_ upstairs would take pity on her -and she wasn’t talking about management either- which was when, of course, everything  _really_ went to shit.

* * *

  
“You can stop pretending you’re not worried, sweet,” said Hokuto mildly, watching Fai tidy up the store with the casual air of one that has no intention to help whatsoever. “It’s only natural you should wonder where that cool drink of water you’ve been panting after all week disappeared to, not to mention her friend the cutie with the-”  
  
“If you say ‘booty’, I am banning you from any and all caffeinated products,” said Fai flatly. “And I’m not worried. At all.”  
  
Hokuto grinned, the special kind of ‘oh, honey, please’ grin he reserved for people in particular denial. “I was going to say ‘bowtie’, but whatever. The fact you’re denying it only makes it more obvious. Besides, you’ve been putting off turning around the closed sign for the past half-hour even though it’s seven o’clock and your shift is officially over.”  
  
Fai’s response was eloquent and pithy, in that she flipped Hokuto the bird with both hands before going back to stacking coffee mugs. “I’m not  _worried_ ,” she repeated, and the unconscious vehemence in her voice made her wince even as Hokuto raised one perfectly groomed eyebrow in her direction. “I’m just... a little curious as to why they didn’t come in today, seeing as they’ve been in every other day this week. Just in passing.” Her hands tightened on the lip of the bench, fingernails biting into the wood beneath them. “I don’t care if they’re at the Starbucks down the road -except,  _rude_ , our coffee is so much better- or on the other side of town. The only thing I miss is the generous tipping, that’s all.” She forced a shrug.  
  
“Mm, and  _I_  enjoy having my nails pulled out with rusty pliers while my grandmother extols the virtues of heterosexuality at great length,” said Hokuto flatly. “I’m not buying what you’re selling, sweetheart.”  
  
There was really no plausible excuse Fai could have given for that, especially since Hokuto had his take-no-shit-take-no-prisoners game face on like he did for mid-season stocktake sales, and the sharpness in his gaze was almost a match for the cutting glances Kurogane had been giving her all week. Only almost, though; there was no way Hokuto could radiate the same sense of competent violence that Kurogane had worn like a perfectly tailored coat. As far as bodyguards went, she looked like the kind that cost a thousand bucks an hour and came with a warning from international intelligence agencies- which really begged the question of why a sweet young thing like Tomoyo needed one in the first place, considering he looked like any other smart kid from a rich family...  
  
She must have said some of that out loud though, because Hokuto shrugged right back at her. “Of course he’s got a bodyguard- he’s a Daidouji.”  
  
“Who’s a what now?”  
  
“ _Daidouji_ ,” repeated Hokuto, rolling his eyes. “You know, the newest family to break the top ten of the Fortune 500? The owners of Piffle Princess Corp, who have the most technologically advanced R & D department this side of NASA? Please tell me you have some inkling of what I’m talking about- even  _you_ , Miss ‘I don’t watch TV, I just read trashy romance novels and hard scifi and horrible amalgamations of the two’, should have heard of  _them_.”  
  
Fai had to admit that she was drawing a blank on that one, much to Hokuto’s disgust- but she supposed it made sense. If your kid were the heir to the corporate throne, you’d keep them guarded up at all times. Tomoyo had probably been babysat and guarded his whole life- which made his relationship with Kurogane both easier to comprehend and kind of sad all at the same time. It probably wasn’t easy to make friends when they had to be vetoed by your security.  
  
“Anyway, as delightful as it is to watch you stand here and pretend you  _don’t_  have a massive lady-bone for tall, dark and gorgeously deadly, I actually have things to do with my Friday night,” said Hokuto blithely, straightening up and tugging his jacket -crushed velvet, and as purple as pickled plums- to lie flat against his waspishly tiny waist. “Stay here and work yourself into a lather if you must, darling, though I’d honestly suggest you go home and get some sleep. It must be hard pretending not to be cripplingly horny all day long, and you need your rest.”  
  
“Oh, fuck off,” said Fai grumpily, but she hugged him all the same, reaching across the counter and mussing up his silky hair.  
  
“Hey! Watch where you’re putting those hands, missy- it takes a lot of product to look this artfully dishevelled.” He paused mid-cluck, hands dropping to his hips and face turning worried. “I’m serious, love- go home. You can’t wait here all night.”  
  
“I know. I promise I will, as soon as I’m done tidying up.” Fai tried to make it convincing even though it felt only half true, but Hokuto was too sweet to call her out on it no matter how weak the lie.  
  
“See that you do, darling,” he murmured, and his eyes were kind. “I’ll see you Monday, yes?” The kiss on the cheek he left Fai with lingered for a while after he left, as she put up all the chairs and turned off the lights, and by the time she made it to locking up the safe and switching on the alarm, all thoughts of her new obsession were almost out of mind. Only almost, which was why when she crossed the still busy road she was only listening with half an ear, and the sudden pop-pop-bang! of a tyre blow-out made her jump a full foot skywards.  
  
“Holy fuck,” gasped Fai, flattening herself against a nearby wall- and she wasn’t the only one either. All around a crowd was gathering, the rabble of their confusion rolling down the street like a wave, and the sudden blaring shriek of a police siren switching on and crackling out in a burst of sound provoked another wash of excited chatter, only getting louder as the distant wail of yet more sirens joined the chorus. Tonight was obviously a good night to be home in her poky apartment with the doors locked and bolted, and not lingering around like she wanted to be the next guest victim on  _Armed and Dangerous: Most Wanted._  
 _  
Okay, this is officially more shit than I am prepared to handle. Let’s hurry home, shall we? Not too quick though- don’t wanna look like I’m fleeing the scene._  If there was a scene, at that; there were far too many people milling around downtown this early on a Friday night for Fai to even get a clear look at what was causing the hubbub- even if it only appeared to be half a block away. So she pulled her coat tighter around herself, shoved her left hand into her handbag and curled her fingers tight around her can of pepper-spray even as her right found the keys jangling in her pocket. It wasn’t much, but it made her feel a little safer as the path beneath her feet turned cracked and neglected, and the streetlights on her way started to flicker and sputter-  
  
-though she still damn near had a  _fucking heart attack_  when two dark figures peeled away from the shadows in the closest alleyway and stepped right into her personal space like they belonged there.  
  
“ _Back the fuck off_ ,” snarled Fai, adrenaline pounding like drums in her skull as she dropped her bag and whipped out her pepper spray in a single smooth motion she’d practiced over and over until she got it right. “Take another step and I’ll spray this shit right in your eyes!” She wasn’t just saying it, either; she’d been almost mugged before and damn near blinded the dumb fuck who’d tried to jump her on her way back from campus. As a single woman walking alone, she had no room for pity and even less for mercy; there was no way in hell she was going down without a fight.  
  
Except nothing but silence met her furious declaration, and just as Fai was squinting forward to get a better look at who, exactly, had accosted her at the mouth of an alley beneath a broken streetlight at a quarter-to-eight at night -she’d need to know their face if she was going to pick it out of a line-up later- a husky voice purred out of the shadows and her would-be attacker stepped forward.  
  
“You talk big,” said Kurogane quietly. “I don’t doubt you could pull it off, though.” She sounded amused, like Fai had impressed her somehow, and the sudden hot gleam in sharp eyes made her mouth dry up.  
  
“Uh,” said Fai intelligently. There was no doubt this was Kurogane, every inch of her the woman that Fai was a little ( _okay, a lot_) attracted to, one arm curled tight around an owlishly-blinking Tomoyo like a mother hen wrapped a wing around a chick. Though maybe mother  _hawk_  was more fitting. Her arm, already trembling slightly as the wash of adrenaline that had surged through her drained away started to shake, and she lowered the can of spray.  
  
“No, don’t do that,” came the rebuke, Kurogane sounding like a peeved teacher- if teachers were heavily armed and made a point of stalking about like a panther on the prowl. “Don’t lower your weapon until your enemy is disarmed- or dead.”  
  
“Realistically speaking, if I’m up against you I don’t think I’ve got a good chance of either,” said Fai dryly, at though her heart wasn’t currently lodged in her throat and resisting all attempts to swallow it back down again. She stooped to pick up her hand bag and drop her spray back in it, but didn’t take her eyes off the deadly serious face in front of her. “There’s a difference between being brave and being stupid.” She huffed a deep breath. “Mind telling me what the hell you’re doing here? Besides scaring the crap out of innocent baristas who just want to get home, that is.”  
  
Kurogane stepped further into the light, dragging Tomoyo gently along beside her, and it was only then that Fai got a good look at the dark blood crusted to one side of Kurogane’s face and the I’m-scared-but-like-hell-I’ll-admit-to-it look on Tomoyo’s. “Looking for somewhere safe to spend the night,” said Kurogane quietly.  
  
It took Fai no time whatsoever to make the decision. “Then I guess you’d better come home with me.”  
  


* * *

  
Saturday dawned bright and cold, and for a moment Fai just laid there and stared blearily at the ceiling, trying to remember what had woken her- besides the broken slat in her blinds that bled sunlight right into her goddamn eyes like it did every fucking morning, the one she couldn’t be arsed to fix and yet cursed soundly every damn time it happened.  
  
She didn’t have work today, so that couldn’t have been it- and her neighbour’s cat wasn’t caterwauling like some beast out of hell, either. She had no appointments, and her social life wasn’t much to speak of; Hokuto was consistently unavailable on Saturday mornings, due to the fact he was more often than not still out partying from Friday night. Since taking a leave of absence from her degree she had no assignments on her plate to worry about, and her nearest relative was a third-cousin twice-removed, so it couldn’t be familial obligations.   
  
Which meant it had to be something else, something  _big_ -  
 _  
Oh._  
  
Slowly, making as little sound as she possibly could, Fai raised one hand from beneath the covers and bit down on her knuckles, scrunching her eyes shut tight.  
 _  
Something like the tech-savvy whiz-kid sleeping on my couch, and the bodyguard watching him like a hawk with a third-degree blackbelt in doing unto others before they do unto you. Something big like that._  
  
What had she been  _thinking_ , getting involved like this? A gorgeous arse and intense eyes were one thing, but getting herself caught up in whatever chaos had caused a cop-car blowout and an armed manhunt downtown was suicide by degrees. That was what it had been last night; a botched kidnapping attempt, a corrupt cop taken down and Kurogane whisking Tomoyo away to the safest haven she could find at short-notice when the rest of the squad arrived for back up, no one she could trust and collateral damage taken in the line of duty writing bloody lines down the side of her striking face. Fai had signed herself up for that kind of trouble without even asking what the payout was.  
 _  
Don’t lie- you talk tough, but you’re not that cold. One look at that sweet face and you would’ve let him hide under your bed for all the good it would have done._  
  
Which was true: no way Fai could have turned down someone who needed help, not when they’d looked up at her and whispered “Thank you,” in the softest sigh she’d ever heard. And as long as she was admitting her flaws, Kurogane’s gratitude hadn’t exactly been unappreciated either, the growing need for acknowledgement from Ms. Tall and Deadly not something she understood but was becoming terrified of how rapidly it felt so natural to look for. The most complicated thing in Fai’s life at this point had been her pot plants, her last relationship long since dead and buried; a romantic comedy was not something she could just tumble into without fair warning.  
 _  
Knowing my luck, it’d turn into some kind of action movie with explosions everywhere and the heroine would leave me in the dust as soon as the bad guys were dead_. Fai sighed, breath stirring the wispy strands of hair fallen over her face. Staying in bed wasn’t going to solve her problems, and most things in life looked better with a hot shower and fresh coffee under one’s belt. Besides -and now she was grinning up at the ceiling, completely unable to help herself- the clothes she’d given Kurogane last night to change into had been  _far_  too small, and any chance at seeing that glorious behind in too-tight yoga pants was not an opportunity to be missed.  
  


* * *

  
“So are you going to tell me why Bad Cop and Badder Cop were trying to kidnap you last night? Or is this one of those things where I’m better off not knowing?” asked Fai, waving her toast around and spraying crumbs everywhere.  
  
Tomoyo, wrist deep in the mostly-empty jar of peanut butter he was trying to scrape a knifeful from, frowned cutely down at the equally cute mascot splashed across the brand label. “More like the Men in Black rather than the cops, Miss Fai- they weren’t real policemen, just defectors from Piffle Princess Corp who want to get back at me. And as for why, it’s all because of my birthday coming up.”  
  
“Tomoyo, you’ve known me for a week and you spent the night on my couch. Pretty sure you can drop the ‘Miss’.” Besides, it had been years since she’d been a ‘Miss’, Fai far too jaded and too far from twenty to be anything but a ‘Ms.’ these days. “You were saying something about your birthday?” That was right, Tomoyo was turning eighteen soon- much to Hokuto’s glee.  _Legal for the good stuff, my sweet_ , he’d laughed,  _though I’d eat my hat if that one hadn’t already gone his way to getting himself deflowered as soon as he turned sixteen. Something about the eyes, you see- no-one innocent has eyes that twinkle so!_ Coughing on a bite of toast that seemed suddenly too dry, Fai managed to choke it down without doing herself too much damage. “Why, what happens then?”  
  
“Mm, just my assumption of my father’s twenty-five percent of Piffle Princess Corp’s stock, as dictated by my grandmother’s will; she never really forgave my father for running off and getting himself a son, not when she’d been nudging him towards marrying some debutante she had lined up- but she liked me, you see, so as soon as I come of age I take over his stake in the company,” said Tomoyo absently. “Which makes my stock portfolio fifty-two percent, and more than enough to give me a controlling stake. Once I assume position as chief stakeholder, it’ll make it so much harder for them to get anything past me, meaning the trouble with those nasty leaks to our competitors we’ve been having should be easier to solve. Of course, I can’t do that if I’m dead or missing, hence all of the kidnap attempts.” Apparently ignorant of the gravity of his words, Tomoyo crowed in triumph when he finally tugged his hand free of the jar. “Oh good, that should be enough for two slices!”  
  
Fai blinked, startled, and then shook herself back to reality. “And your Dad’s... okay with this?”  
  
“Hm? Oh, Dad’s quite happy to hand it over- everyone knows he wanted to go back to working in the labs, and it’s not like I haven’t been doing most of the financials paperwork since I was fifteen, anyway.”  
  
“If you’re trying to ask whether it was his father that set the fake cops on us,” said a dark voice by Fai’s ear, making her curse as she dropped her toast in shock, “the answer is no. I’ve known Sonomi since I was five, and he loves Tomoyo like a father should.” Kurogane brushed past with barely a whisper of contact, but every inch of Fai’s skin in close proximity to her broke out in sudden goosebumps, a shiver rolling down her spine. “Is that coffee?”  
  
“Huh? Oh, uh, sure,” she babbled, holding out the diffuser as though it were a shield.  _Holy shit, I didn’t even hear the bathroom door- and that thing creaks like the stairs in a haunted house!_  “Just straight black, but I’ve got milk in the fridge if you want- oh, right, lactose intolerant. Never mind.”  
  
Kurogane blinked slowly, taking the handle that Fai offered her. “I don’t remember telling you that,” she murmured, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as she poured her coffee.  
  
Fai snorted and flapped a dismissive hand. “Please. You’re not  _special_ \- nine times out of ten people only want almond milk if they can’t handle the lactose and soy leaves a bad taste in their mouth.”  
  
“Heh,” was all Kurogane said to that, but the quirk at the corner of her lips was almost a smile, and when she reached out a hand to brush the length of her hair back over her shoulder ( _long and dark and so slightly wavy, still wet from the shower and bleeding water down the back of her shirt; its tumbling tangles framed the angles of her face with unexpected gentleness, soothing the cut of those sharp eyes and bringing to mind inky haloes spilling soft over sheets and pillows both_ ) Fai met that half-smile with a whole one of her own. “You’re smarter than you look, blondie.”  
  
“Hair colour has no genetic link to intelligence, and if you’re trying to rile me up, you’re going to have to do better than that,” said Fai blithely. The brush of those fingers against her own as she took back the diffuser didn’t do make her drop it, or anything so silly- she had herself until control now, thank you very much. “How’d you sleep?”  
  
“Had better. Leaning up against a wall’s no match for a bed. Thanks for the blanket, though, and the pillows.” Kurogane shrugged, dropping one shoulder and taking a tentative sip from her mug. “Hey, this is pretty good.”  
  
“Thanks. I still say I could have given the two of you my bed and taken the couch myself.”  
  
“Nah,” said Kurogane, before tipping her head back and draining the rest of her coffee in one long swallow- and Fai was  _not_ watching the elegant line of her throat, or the way her collarbones stood stark and clean above the stretched out neckline of an old college shirt, the worn fabric strained and thin in the bright morning light, or even the way Kurogane licked her lips in satisfaction as she brought the mug back down empty. No sir. Definitely not watching. “That one kicks in his sleep.”  
  
“Eh?”  
  
“Oh, I do not,” said Tomoyo crossly, pouting as he bit into his toast. And Fai had not totally forgotten he was in the kitchen either, nope. “And even if you think I kick -which I don’t, by the way- then you still could have shared Fai’s bed. I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded,” he added cheerfully, completely ignoring the way Fai had apparently decided that spluttering and choking on her own lungs was her only way out of that awkward proposition.  
  
Kurogane slapped her on the back as she coughed, the blow of her hand warm and stinging, and the rub of that broad palm between Fai’s shoulder blades in slow circles did nothing to dispel the tightness in her throat.  
 _  
Sweet Mother of God, I can feel her calluses catching on my shirt. That should not be nearly as sexy as it actually is. Help_.  
  
“Tomoyo,” she grunted, voice clearly disapproving, “you can’t just invite me into other people’s beds without asking.” She said it as though it didn’t mean a thing- but even if Fai did have tears in her eyes and was still struggling to catch her breath back, she didn’t miss the pink flush at the tips of Kurogane’s ears.  _Okay, file that under ‘interesting, and kind of adorable’._  
  
“Well  _someone_  has to,” said Tomoyo archly. “God knows if I left you to your own devices you’d die single and celibate.”  
 _  
...okay, now her ears are definitely red_.  
  
“ _Tomoyo!_ ” and  _wow_ , the puppy’s bark was definitely as bad as her bite and a whole lot louder. “What the hell! You keep your trap shut or so help me-”  
  
“You’ll do what? Hand me over to the bad guys chasing us? As if,” he snorted, shoving the last of his toast in his mouth and swallowing it in one big gulp. “You can’t touch me and you know it- you love me too much.”  
  
“You’ve got crumbs on your chin,” was the grumbled response, Kurogane reaching out to brush them away in a way that looked rough but really wasn’t. She was still a bit flushed about the ears. “Anyway. Hurry up with your breakfast and go get your arse in the shower- we can’t stay here for much longer.”  
  
Fai blinked. “You can’t? I thought you said his apartment was too dangerous to go back to?”  
  
“Yeah, it is.” Kurogane scrubbed one hand back through her hair, picking at a few knots with her fingers as she combed them through. There was no sign of any wound that could have bled last night, her skin as dusky and smooth as it always was. “Next stop is Edonis Casino- it’s got the tightest security in town, and the hotel is owned by Piffle Corp’s subsidiaries. I’ll take Tomoyo to ground there until we hear that it’s safe again from the other guys on the security force. No chance that we weren’t spotted coming here last night- but the chaos downtown kept those bastards from doing anything about it. Bit hard to give chase when your car has no wheels and the real cops have been called on ya.” Kurogane’s voice was warm with something a little like satisfaction and a lot like malice, and the arrogant edge to her words was doing something funny to Fai’s insides, leaving them hot and liquid. The toothy smirk -sharp and bold and a little bit evil- really wasn’t helping either.  
  
“As soon as we leave the building, they’ll be after us, so we gotta go while the going’s good,” she added, folding her arms and leaning back against the kitchen bench. “It’s also why you’re coming with us.”  
  
Fai was too busy thinking about how nice it was to see her like that ( _alert but not tense, a predator at rest yet ready to pounce_ ) and the wonderfully defined muscle in her arms, lean and rippling beneath too tight sleeves that rode up high over the best biceps she’d ever seen on a woman for Kurogane’s words to sink in straight away, but when they did she had to stare.  
  
“I’m sorry, but  _what_?”  
  
“Well, we can’t just  _leave you here_ , silly,” said Tomoyo happily. “You were seen with us. The guys that are after us won’t hesitate to go after you too if they think it’ll help them get their hands on me. We’re not just going to throw you to the lions, Fai,” he laughed. “Obviously, we’ve got to keep you safe too until Kurogane gets the all clear. It’s the least we can do for you helping us out when we really needed it.”  
  
“You can’t be serious,” laughed Fai, and the sound was a little bit helpless. Corporate conspiracies, men in black and kidnap attempts- what the  _fuck_  had she gotten herself into?  
  
“Afraid so,” said Kurogane, and wow, smug should  _not_  sound so attractive. Her hand clapped down on Fai’s shoulder, her grip tight, and Fai’s knees promptly turned to butter. “Don’t worry,” she said, and something about the huskiness of her voice made it sound deliciously threatening. “You’re safe with me.”  
 _  
Oh, I really doubt that_.  
  


* * *

  
Somehow being on the lam from sinister forces and needing to find a safe place to bunker down and wait for reinforcements had translated in Tomoyo's mind to ‘let’s go shopping!’, meaning by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around Fai found herself standing in the reception area of the most exclusive boutique in the whole metropolitan area and staring dumbly as Tomoyo flitted happily from rack to rack. The attendants had offered her champagne, and chocolate-dipped strawberries; she’d taken both gratefully, a little stunned to be where she currently was. A place like this had the everyday sales targets that rivalled her yearly wages, and Fai couldn’t help the sneaky suspicion that she was so underdressed that her old clothes, should she actually change into new ones here, would be taken away and burnt for fear of offending their high-class clientele.  
  
To be fair, said boutique was actually attached to the Edonis Casino, which, as Kurogane had asserted before, had the best security around for miles; Fai had passed a wall of dangerously suited men on her way in, each one of them nodding respectfully to Kurogane as Tomoyo had waved, and the way each guard they passed had straightened noticeably and started to sweat just a little under Kurogane’s sharp gaze suggested that Tomoyo was in the best hands he could possibly be in. They hadn’t so much as blinked at their respective attire, either, which was something to be said considering the three of them were dressed in whatever Fai had cobbled together out of her wardrobe that morning, an apparent tragedy that Tomoyo had insisted they correct as soon as possible.  
  
“After all,” he’d said blithely, dressed in a far-too-big hoodie Fai had found him, its loose sleeves flopping over his tiny hands, ”just because someone’s out to kidnap me doesn’t mean I can’t look fantastic.”  
  
So here they were, and Fai was honestly starting to regret giving Kurogane hip-hugging yoga pants to wear no matter how fantastic her thighs looked in them because she’d been staring at that arse for a good ten minutes now and didn’t seem to be able to stop. Not that Kurogane had noticed; she was too busy arguing with her young charge about how stiletto heels were not appropriate footwear for a high-stakes stand-off with the would-be kidnappers of one’s employer, and was demanding that accommodations for low-slung pumps or chunky-heeled boots be made instead. The fact that every time she gestured emphatically with her arms her borrowed t-shirt ( _the one that clung to her like a second skin, adorning rather than concealing the magnificent lines of her body beneath it_ ) would ride up just a little further, leaving Fai with a perfect view of the cute dimples bracketing the curve of her spine in all their glory, really wasn’t making things any easier.  
  
The shop attendants weren’t helping either, considering two of them were too busy arguing amongst themselves about Tomoyo’s choice in evening wear to intercede in his bodyguard’s favour, and the third had promptly excused herself for a lunch date with a suspicious-looking woman who, for some bizarre reason, was wearing thick dark sunglasses inside the shopping strip. In the middle of the day. Fai supposed the neon lights were a bit vicious on one’s eyes if one wasn’t used to it, but that was taking retina protection to creepy levels. The sharky grin the sunglass-wearing woman had given her as she’d left with the shop’s manager had been far too seedy for such an upmarket establishment as well.  
  
Fai was starting to despair that she’d ever get out of this situation alive and briefly wondering if she should nominate Hokuto in her will to take custody of her poor abandoned houseplants, when Tomoyo turned to her with a gleam in his eye, having apparently browbeaten his bodyguard into meek -if grumbling- submission.  
  
“Now that we’ve got Kurogane all sorted, it’s your turn,” he said happily, and his winning smile should not have been nearly so terrifying as it actually was.  
  
Fai’s stomach sunk, and if she hadn’t been a grown woman of twenty-five her knees would have started knocking together.  _I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- help!_  
  


* * *

  
“You did well, earlier,” said Kurogane, much, much later when the three of them were properly attired and had been checked into a lush two-bedroom suite; it was evening, long past sunset, and the city skyline was throwing dazzling lights across the velvet-dark night sky. Tomoyo had declared he was for the Jacuzzi bath as soon as they'd walked in the door, leaving the two of them to carry in the bags of shopping and crash down onto the couch in relief. “I know Tomoyo can be pushy when he wants something, but he doesn’t mean any harm. He’s a good kid.” She was cleaning the gun Fai knew she had been wearing, her holster looking almost naked where it was splayed out on the table, and the look on Kurogane’s face was one of utter concentration as she counted out her ammunition on the highly polished coffee-table with steady hands. She didn’t have very many bullets left at all. “I got caught out,” Kurogane said simply, noticing where Fai’s attention had fallen. “Stupid mistake on my part- I knew the danger, and I took a risk I shouldn’t have. We got out of it just fine -it was a risk, but not that much of a risk- but I came out the other side without my second holster or my spare ammo.”  
  
“Is that how you got hurt?” asked Fai quietly, swinging her legs over the couch armrest so she could sit on the cushions proper. It was cool in the hotel room now; she was glad Tomoyo’s choice of outfit for her had including a thick, comfortable sweater.  
  
Kurogane looked over, startled. “Huh? Hurt?”  
  
“Last night- you had blood on your face.” There hadn’t been much of it, true, but the image of Kurogane grim-faced and bloody in the mouth of the alley way had been one of the things that had made Fai’s decision to help for her before she’d even had the chance to think it through.  
  
But now Kurogane was grinning at her, bright and wide and wonderful, and the spark in her eyes spoke of violent urges well-controlled. “Oh, that wasn’t my blood,” she laughed, and Fai’s belly swooped eagerly at the sound. “No, that belonged to the poor bastard who tried to take Tomoyo from me.” Her grin faded a little then, melting from being almost cruel to something gently melancholy, and she wore the expression beautifully. “I said a long time ago that when I found something to protect, I wouldn’t let anyone take it from me, and I’m not going to let anything make me a liar.”  
 _  
Okay_ , thought Fai while the impact of that statement sank in,  _she’s gorgeous and dangerous and nobler than a whole round table full of knights- I may, in fact, be in a lot of trouble here_. God, but she was such a sucker for the heroic ones.  
  
What she said though, because apparently her mouth had a mind of its own these days, was “So, how did you end up working for Tomoyo?”  
  
“He’s my cousin,” said Kurogane bluntly. “Or second-cousin, or some shit like that- anyway, my Dad and his Dad are related somehow, and I knew him when we were both kids, even if he is a couple of years younger. For a long time after I finished school I didn’t... I didn’t know what I was doing with myself,” and here she shrugged, looking down at her hands as she turned one shining bullet over and over between her fingers. “I was angry for no reason, and my mother- she said I needed a purpose in life before I turned self-destructive. And if I didn’t know how to take care of myself, then maybe I should try taking care of someone else. That was five years ago now, and I don’t regret a minute of it.”  
  
“Your mother sounds like a smart woman,” said Fai softly.  
  
“Yeah, and doesn’t she know it,” muttered Kurogane, mouth twitching into a half-smile. “Dunno how Dad puts up with her, to be honest- but then he’s got the patience of a saint. Has to, I guess; he couldn’t be a paediatric nurse without it, and he’s been one for over twenty years, so.”  
  
Fai grinned. “A nurse? I was picturing something a little more dramatic, to be honest.”  
  
“Heh,” and Fai didn’t think it was possible for her to ever get tired of that soft chuckle. “No, that would be my  _mother_. Ex-special forces, bravery medallion, honourable discharge before moving on to work in private security, runs a martial arts dojo on weekends and can kick your arse from here to next week with any weapon you care to name- including the stuff most people don’t realise are weapons in the first place.”  
  
Fai’s eyebrows shot up. “So you’re definitely your mother’s daughter. Guess she taught you everything you know.”  
  
Kurogane’s grin this time was purely delighted, crooked and brilliant and lighting her eyes up. Fai’s heart stuttered desperately in her chest at the sight of it. “You could say that- Dad says I look just like her too.” She paused then, grin fading, and the look she gave Fai as she turned to face her properly was half quizzical and half something that Fai couldn’t even begin to read. “I never talk about my parents to anyone,” Kurogane said quietly, her eyes intense. “I don’t know why you’re so different.”  
  
There was nothing Fai could have said to that. Even if her mouth was blurting things out without consulting her brain these days, right now it was nothing but dry, her tongue useless and silent where normally she was so quick off the mark; it seemed like no pithy remark, no matter how smart or witty, was a match for the honesty in those eyes. Instead, before Fai could even really think about how or why, she was moving closer, closing the gap between them on the plush sofa- and Kurogane really didn’t seem to mind, if the way her gaze had turned heavy-lidded, dragging across Fai’s skin with enough heat to leave sparks in its wake was any indication.  
  
One of Fai’s hands found its way to Kurogane’s knee, fingers splaying wide over her thigh; the warmth of firm muscle and coiled tension bled through the fabric of dark trousers to brand her palm with heat, and just as Fai was leaning ever so slightly in to find out if those lips ( _parted gently, almost eagerly, as though she’d been waiting for this all along_ ) really were as soft as they looked when the ensuite door behind them slammed open with a bang and a cloud of steam.  
  
“My God, that bath was practically  _orgasmic_ ,” moaned Tomoyo happily -and  _loudly_ \- swanning into the small lounge room while wrapped head to foot in a ridiculously fluffy dressing gown he wore like a king would their ermine cape. “I insist the two of you try it, though I suppose you don’t have to go at the same time if you’re going to be prudish about it- oh, was I interrupting a moment here?”  
  
The innocent look on his face was not comforting for Fai -and she supposed probably wasn’t for Kurogane either- considering that as soon as Tomoyo had started speaking she’d flung herself back across the couch so fast she’d nearly toppled off of it. Kurogane, for her part, had leapt backwards like a scalded cat and had ended up perched on the armrest in some kind of ninja-esque pose that a part of Fai was mildly impressed to see her pull off. Not many people as tall as her could crouch like that, and in a three-piece suit no less; at least not without looking like they were made entirely of knees and elbows. Of course, the rest of Fai was still a gibbering mess, and seeing the absolutely gobsmacked look on Kurogane’s face wasn’t helping.  
 _  
Maybe that was not the best idea I’ve ever had._  
  
“Fucking hell, Tomoyo,” Kurogane gasped, and in any other circumstance Fai would have been delighted to see her so flustered. “Don’t you know how to fucking  _knock_?”  
  
Tomoyo raised one elegant eyebrow. “And why, exactly, would I need to knock coming  _out_  of the bathroom?” There was nothing his bodyguard had to say to that, apparently, meaning that as the silence grew so too did the cheerful grin slowly spreading over Tomoyo’s face. “Oh,  _my_ ,” he purred. “I really was interrupting something, wasn’t I?”  
  
“Shut up,” barked Kurogane, jumping off the arm of the couch and to her feet. “I don’t get paid to put up with this crap from you,” she muttered, snatching up her gun and the pieces of it laid out across the table; her fingers moved in a blur as she clicked it back together, and locked it firmly in her holster, bullets falling one by one into the little pouch for them. “Brat.” Carefully not catching Fai’s eye -and was that a good sign or a bad one?- she dodged past her grinning ward and stormed into one of the bedrooms without even looking back.  
  
“I wouldn’t worry,” said Tomoyo, clearly amused. “She’ll sulk for a little while, but I promise you it’s me she’s mad at, not you, Fai- I’ve known her long enough to be certain. And since she can’t bop me on the head like she really wants to, it just makes her grouchy. Well. Grouch _ier_ ,” he added, after a moment, during which Kurogane reappeared from the bedroom with a bag slung over her shoulder and disappeared once more into the steam still billowing from the ensuite. “I don’t think I’ve ever met  _anyone_  as delightfully grumpy as our dear Kurogane.”  
  
If Fai had been feeling more sure-footed, she would have fired back some witty repartee, snark having always been her go-to weapon of choice, but as it was her stomach was still rolling with disappointment at a mood ruined and an opportunity lost she didn’t think would come around again soon. Certainly  _she_  couldn’t picture working up the nerve to try to kiss Kurogane again, not with Tomoyo watching- she was brave, but not  _that_  brave. And it didn’t really seem likely Kurogane would either.  
 _  
Dammit. You’re a great kid, Tomoyo, which is probably the only reason I haven’t grabbed a pillow and tried to smother you with it, but you need to work on your fucking timing_.  
  
Still. Spilt milk couldn’t be poured back in the jug, and there was no use crying over it. Especially not when Tomoyo flopped down beside her on the lounge and shot her a winning smile as he threw his dainty feet up on the coffee table right where Kurogane’s holster had been. “I know you’re mad at me,” he said happily, floofing his dressing gown out about him as he sat and snuggling down into its plush folds.  
  
“Really,” said Fai flatly. “Whatever could make you think that.”  
  
Tomoyo  _giggled_ \- there was no other word for it, his laugh bright and sparkling and infectious, and even though Fai really didn’t want to, she could feel her own laughter bubbling up in her chest and threatening to burst out no matter how hard she tried to squash it back down. “That’s alright,” he said, tipping back against the plump cushions of the couch and lacing his hands behind his head. Behind him there was the distant  _hissssshh_  of the shower turning on. “You’re allowed to be- I honestly thought it would take the two of you much longer to get to the kissing point, and I’ve probably knocked your progress back a bit. Kurogane’s awfully shy, you know,” he added in a whisper, his tone conspiratorial; Fai couldn’t help the incredulous look she gave him.  _Shy_ was not the word Fai would have used to describe someone who had shot down a police car and foiled a kidnapping attempt in an act of pure badassery.  
  
“I’m serious,” laughed Tomoyo, eyes twinkling. “She really is. I’m actually surprised the two of you are talking as much as you are- it took  _weeks_  for Kurogane to warm up to me when we first met, and we’re related! Though considering some of our other relatives, it’s entirely possible us being related put our friendship back a bit… but anyway, my point is, don’t go giving up just yet, okay?” He reached out, taking one of Fai’s hands in his own, and beneath the softness of his skin his grip was firm. “Promise me that.”  
  
“I…” Fai swallowed, feeling pinned and exposed beneath that friendly yet surprisingly intimidating gaze. It was a little bit terrifying to be subjected to such scrutiny, no matter how well meaning it was.  _I wonder if this is how it feels to meet your in-laws_. “Um, sure?”  
  
“I’m glad,” said Tomoyo, squeezing Fai’s fingers. “I’ve always thought that if there’s something you want in life, you should be prepared to fight for it.” It was on the tip of Fai’s tongue to say something caustic like  _what have you ever fought for, you born with your silver spoon_  but as hard as it was to bite it back she managed, swallowing the words down in a bitter little lump. She was not that person, to lash out so cruelly when things happened that she did not like; not today, and not tomorrow either.  
  
But Tomoyo was still smiling at her sweetly, his young face kind, and Fai was not at all surprised when he squeezed her hand once more and let it go. “Kurogane’s going to be in the shower for a bit longer,” he said happily. “She’s always taken her time in the bathroom- I think it’s all that hair, you know.” That made Fai snort, and once she made that small concession the rest of her laughter came bubbling out, the two of them lost in giggles loud enough to drown out any other sound.  
  
“Anyway,” said Tomoyo, once they’d stopped and he’d blotted away the tears that had leaked out with his poofy sleeve, “While we’re waiting for Kurogane to make herself pretty, I think we should totally order room service to celebrate my not being kidnapped- and I suggest we do it now while she’s not here, because no doubt she’ll tell me I’m spoilt if she catches me with the menus.”  
  
“You are pretty spoilt,” said Fai dryly, though she didn’t object to the room service plan. This was her first and most likely her last chance to order from the in-house menu of a swanky hotel while someone else footed the bill- like hell she was gonna miss out on  _that_.  
  
“I know,” agreed Tomoyo, already reaching for the table phone and flipping open the leather-bound, gold embossed service menu. “But I’m cute, so I can get away with it.” He shot Fai the best innocent smile she had ever seen.  
 _  
Wow, and the Oscar goes to Tomoyo Daidouji. Hot damn, I gotta learn how to do that_. “Alright, but we should get something nice for Kurogane too, just so she can’t get mad at us- or at least when she does get mad, we can show her what we ordered her and make her feel guilty for yelling.”  
  
This time Tomoyo’s grin roared right past mischievous and left innocent behind in the dust. “I like the way you think, Fai.”  
  


* * *

  
Morning found Fai blinking blearily at the lushly-embossed wallpaper, the whole room painted in cool shades of blue-grey and the sunlight blocked out almost entirely by heavy curtains. It had been a later night than she anticipated, but morning was morning no matter where she was, and though it took a minute or two for her brain to kick start and reboot, once she remembered she sat bolt upright in bed and stared.  _Holy shit, that actually happened yesterday_. One would think she’d be over surprises by now, but though she’d only known Kurogane and consequently Tomoyo for a short amount of time, she still felt like she hadn’t seen the last of sudden twists and turns in her life.  
  
She certainly hadn’t expected to spend her Saturday night eating Kobe steak with vintage port wine jus and baby vegetables sautéed in garlic and herbs, followed by gilded truffles and sugared rose petals for dessert and all the other ridiculous rich people food she’d never before had the chance to taste while the heir to the second-largest corporation on this side of the continent got smashed on barely a glass of ridiculously expensive champagne. And hadn’t Kurogane gotten growly over that, insisting that her ward was far too young and snatching up his second drink to swallow it down before Tomoyo had the chance to get through more than three sips of it. Tomoyo had protested, but to no avail; the minute he started yawning he was shooed off to bed with a sleepy protest, leaving the two of them behind to finish off the rest. After all, Fai had declared, the bottle cost more than the average GDP of an obscure Eastern European country; it would be a crying shame to pour it down the drain.  
  
The rest of the night after that had passed in a bubbly, rose-coloured blur, of which Fai only remembered three things: that Kurogane could hold her liquor impressively well, that the conversation came far too easy for all that they’d barely known each other for a week, and that if eyes were something that one really could drown in, then Kurogane’s eyes ( _wine-dark and lovely, trailing heat with every line they tracked across her face, glittering with dangerous promise_ ) were so deep they swallowed Fai down and closed over the top of her head with barely a ripple.  
  
Fai shivered pleasantly.  _Ooh. Give me a bottle of wine, a soft bed -or even just a rug in front of a fireplace, let’s be honest- and a whole night with her alone, and I’d go to my drowning a very happy woman_.  
  
Nevertheless, musing on that wasn’t going to get her up and dressed, and while the soft and fuzzy sweater had been comfortable enough to sleep in, it wasn’t enough to go traipsing out to the living room in. So Fai rolled to her feet, wobbling a little -she wasn’t hung-over by any means; only cheap tequila did that to her, but the bed had been softer than what she was used to and her body didn’t want to leave it- as she rummaged around the room for the jeans she’d been wearing last night-  
  
-and promptly realised she’d left them in the bathroom.  
 _  
Okay, so half-naked dash out to the ensuite it is. Well, the sweater’s long enough anyway, it shouldn’t be too bad_. Besides, even though she got the feeling dear Kurogane was an early riser -and the faint noises coming through the bedroom door from the lounge suggested as much- Tomoyo almost certainly wasn’t and if Kurogane saw her bare legs and a bit of her arse, oh well. It wasn’t like Fai didn’t  _want_  her to see more anyway. Fai snorted.  _Heh, maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll be so overcome by passion she’ll tackle me to that ridiculously comfy couch and ravish me_. Unlikely, but a girl could dream.  
  
Even though she was mostly sure Kurogane was awake, Fai cracked the door ajar before opening it properly, just to check- if she was still sleeping on the lounge like she was last night, Fai wouldn’t wake her- though she might catch a glimpse of a sleeping face that was sure to be adorable. She might even have to take a picture and set it as the wallpaper on her phone.  
  
But Kurogane wasn’t sleeping. No, Kurogane was definitely awake, and having pushed the coffee table and couch aside over the generous space of the living room, was currently running through a series of stretching and lunging exercises. Sweat glistened on the bare skin exposed between her sports bra and the thrice-cursed yoga pants Fai had given her as strands of dark hair spilled haphazardly down her back from the lopsided bun she’d gathered it into. Her eyes were closed, her face composed, and Fai realised with a dull sense of horror that her mouth had dropped open the moment she’d peeked through the crack between the door and the wall.  
 _  
…Okay, so that’s a no on the sleeping face. And, um, wow._  
  
Kurogane twisted smoothly, her well-defined and entirely lickable abdominal muscles rippling as she moved; her ribcage flared with each deep, even breath and the liquid grace of her moving form made Fai think of a tigress on the prowl, of how many years of training and practice went into each controlled movement, of dashing into the room and tackling Kurogane to the floor and trailing her tongue down that flat, gorgeous stomach to see if her skin tasted as good as the gleam of sweat promised it would, of using everything she had to tease and caress with worshipful lips and desperate fingers until all that power and skill collapsed into a writhing hot mess beneath her-  
  
Fai didn’t, of course; merely closed the door as quietly as she could and slid slowly down the back of it with her arms coming to rest around her knees, counting the seconds until Tomoyo finally woke up and she could venture out into that common space without feeling like she was inches away from going off in her jeans like a hormone-addled teenager. She crossed her legs and bit her lip, forcing her thoughts to bland nothingness- but what she’d seen stayed with her, burnt into her mind like the press of a scorching fingertip on her skin.  
 _  
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. God, if you just give me the strength to resist temptation I promise I’ll never sneak change from the tip jar ever again, or think bad thoughts about the televangelists on TV. Please?_  
  


* * *

  
“If you put that thing near my eye one more time,” said Kurogane, her voice calm and level and somehow managing to give the impression of a volcano rumbling gently before it was due to erupt, “I’m going to break it.”  
  
The beautician, a friendly young woman named Yukito -at least according to the bunny-shaped name badge pinned to her cute smock- blinked slowly as she lowered her curling iron. “Oh, do you not want your hair in curls, Miss?” Her face was kind, eyes crinkling softly around the corners, and the patience in her smile suggested an old soul indeed behind that pretty face.  
  
“No,” said Kurogane shortly. “I can do my own damn hair. Go fuss with Tomoyo; give him a buzz cut or something.”  
  
“You wouldn’t dare!” gasped Tomoyo in mock outrage; he clutched his short cap of silky hair dramatically, eyes twinkling all the while. “It would be a crime to damage such wonderful locks- I’m sure Yukito couldn’t countenance such a thing!”  
  
Yukito smiled sweetly. “As you say, Master Tomoyo.”  
  
Fai, perched on the arm of the couch with one knee drawn up and her eyes wide, surveyed the scene in front of her with something like horrified fascination. When Tomoyo had declared that he would be attending the monthly Gala Buffet that the Edonis Casino was hosting that evening -which was something like three hours away by her reckoning; after Tomoyo had finally dragged her out of her bedroom, they’d indulged with a long and leisurely lunch down by the resort deck- she’d actually thought the young man had been joking. Because there was no way that keeping one’s head down and avoiding trouble could possibly mean he was serious about attending a five-star dinner event where there would not only be a crowd, but ample opportunity for their enemies to infiltrate said crowd.  
  
However, apparently it did and he was, and Kurogane was not only letting him but  _accompanying_  him, for some unknown reason that, if she was honest, probably had something to do with the way Tomoyo had his scowly-but-softhearted bodyguard twisted so far around his little finger he might as well wear her like a ring. So. Here Fai sat, in their room watching Tomoyo’s preparations for the night’s entertainment unfold- which apparently included torturing Kurogane via the proxy of the in-room beautician who was threatening to style her hair, something she seemed to be dead-set against happening.  
  
Which Fai could sort of understand; Kurogane didn’t seem particularly girly to her- at least, not compared with her benchmark standards of ‘girly’, most of whom, oddly enough, seemed to be male; even Hokuto was more of a fashion-plate than his twin sister, and she was a model! But then, Subaru had a tendency to dress plainly in her own free time, wearing chunky cable-knit sweaters with tights and boots when she was cold and cute little sundresses with not-quite-matching sandals in summer with not much variation in between, and Fai supposed that if her nine-to-five was being a glorified clotheshorse for Hokuto of all people, she’d want to take it easy wardrobe-wise when she was off the clock too. Still, regardless of what stereotypes Kurogane did or did not fill, it was entirely her decision as to what she wanted to wear or how she wanted to style her hair, and Fai for one believed she’d still be just as knock-out gorgeous wearing a potato sack or an evening gown or nothing at all-  _especially_  nothing at all.  
  
In the end Yukito gave it up as a lost cause, though Fai had the sneaking suspicion she mostly did so because Tomoyo had clapped his hands in excited delight upon spotting all the shades of nail polish Yukito had included in her make-up kit and immediately requested his nails be painted, rather than any threat Kurogane could have made. Yukito’s smile was totally placid and sweet, but in Fai’s experience, it was always best to fear the nice ones.  
  
“Nosy little brat,” muttered Kurogane under her breath, digging around in Yukito’s kit for a handful of bobby pins. She stuck a few of them in her mouth, pinching them between her teeth as though she could bite clean through the metal, and started brushing her hair with fierce, irritated yanks of a brush. “Thinks I can’t style my own hair.” She continued to grumble around the pins in her mouth even as Fai watched her brush the heavy mass of her dark hair to shining softness, twisting it up and into a simple roll, and ramming pins home to hold it in place with well-practiced viciousness. “There,” Kurogane grunted, folding her arms grumpily. “Happy now?”  
  
Tomoyo, seated on a plush tuffet beside the couch and halfway through having his nails painted a fluorescent shade of violet -literally; the varnish seemed to have specks of glowing glitter that shimmered when Yukito tilted his hand up to the light- beamed up at her. “Now don’t you look lovely! Though it does look a little harsh- come here for a moment.” He gestured and Kurogane knelt obligingly by his side; the hand that Yukito wasn’t painting the nails of with sure, even strokes reached up and gently scuffed dainty fingers through the drifting bangs that framed her face, teasing them into falling softly. “There,” he murmured. “Perfect.”  
  
Kurogane rolled her eyes, but personally Fai had to agree; it was different to see Kurogane with anything but her hair down or pulled into a stern ponytail, and the tilt of her head as she turned and considered her appearance in the huge -and ornately framed- mirror on the living room wall was thoughtful. “Huh,” she said after a moment, tipping her head to one side, and abruptly Fai’s mouth dried up as her eyes trailed unwillingly downwards over the strong, elegant line of her neck, catching on her collarbones where the neckline of her button-down shirt framed them. “What do you think?”  
  
Fai started. “Eh? Uh…” The only thing Fai ever did with her hair was shampoo and condition it, and curse the hot days when the fluffy mess of it stuck to her neck with sweat. She got her fringe trimmed regularly, and could maybe stretch it to a teeny little ponytail if she didn’t get it cut for a while, but her days of having long hair were long past. Too much of a pain for no real gain, and she didn’t see the point in growing it unless she was trying to impress someone- and no such person had been on her radar for quite some time. Excepting present company, of course. “I like it,” was what she said though, because it suited Kurogane; softened the sharpness of her features just enough and framed the fierceness of her gaze in wonderful contrast.  
  
“Hn,” was all Kurogane said to that, which could have meant anything, but the tips of her ears were touched with pink. “Whatever. I’m going to get dressed; try not to fall headfirst into Yukito’s make-up kit, brat,” muttered Kurogane as she stalked past.  
  
“Kurogane, you’re no fun at all,” pouted Tomoyo, but the bedroom door was already closed behind her. “Eh, I’m not going to argue when my nails are still wet,” he added after a moment, waving his finished hand about as Yukito worked peacefully on the other. “Besides, now we get to do you up, Fai.”  
  
Fai nearly fell off her perch. “ _Me?_ ”  
  
“Of course!” chirped Tomoyo. “Who else do you think I bought that lovely blue dress for? You certainly can’t think I’d leave you here to languish in the hotel while the two of us went out for dinner? Of course you’re coming with us, darling, and I won’t take no for an answer.” He said all of this cheerfully, politely, but there was a delicate thread of steel in his voice that went a long way towards Fai’s understanding of why exactly Kurogane found it so hard to say no to him.  
  
“Um,” said Fai, but apparently that was enough of a confirmation of acceptance for Tomoyo, as he clapped his free hand on his thigh and beamed at her in response.  
  
“Excellent! Now come over here and let’s do something with your hair- the artfully disheveled look is nice and matches the fuzzy sweater, but if you’re going to be dressing up, we’ve got to get you done up to match! What do you think, Yukito?”  
  
“She’s got a lot of potential, Master Tomoyo,” Yukito murmured, finishing the final strokes of colour on Tomoyo’s smallest fingernail and capping the nail polish neatly. “And I have a lovely eye shadow that matches the shade of her dress…”  
  
Fai swallowed, because the gleam in Tomoyo’s eye was terrifying. Dressing up for a special occasion was one thing; being dressed up by a pint-size powerhouse with very strong opinions on her outfit, no matter how adorable he was, was another thing entirely. _Shit, I should have fled to the bedroom while I had the chance!_  
  
“Oh, don’t worry,” purred Tomoyo, advancing on Fai with a cheerful smile. “I promise we’ll be gentle!”  
  


* * *

After Fai had been primped, preened, and poured into the -admittedly very beautiful- dress Tomoyo had chosen for her, it was very nearly time to head out to dinner. Kurogane had emerged halfway through Tomoyo’s gleeful preparations, and Fai would forever be grateful Yukito had finished with her eye makeup, leaving her free to stare in unabashed wonder. Everyday working-bodyguard Kurogane was a figure of knee-weakening awe in a well cut suit with her killer smirk; seeing her now dressed in a glorious creation of scarlet silk with matching heels -low-slung; it seemed she’d won  _that_  argument at least- and her up-done hair bedecked with glittering red-jeweled hairpins ( _none of which were nearly so brilliant as her eyes_ ) she’d somehow produced from her handbag was almost enough to bring Fai down to her knees entirely. For what purpose, she couldn’t say; proposing maybe, running her hands up those amazingly long legs to trail trembling fingertips over the silk of her stockings perhaps, but simply kneeling there and looking up as though to a work of art on a pedestal was the most likely possibility.  
  
Not that Fai had much time to admire Kurogane, because as soon as Tomoyo had buttoned himself into his dashing little tuxedo -while he was  _far_  too young to be anything but cute in her eyes, even Fai could see the potential that Hokuto had cooed about- with a bowtie the same shade as his fantastically-painted fingernails they were out the door and heading down to the dining hall in a whirlwind of graceful movement and beautiful clothes. At least, Tomoyo and Kurogane were graceful, which made sense considering one was born and bred into high-class society and the other was paid very well indeed to blend in with said society; Fai herself felt like a stork in stilettos trying to make her way across the plush carpet and into the crowd. Barefoot she was graceful and limber as you please- twice weekly yoga classes had seen to that. Dressed up to the nines in a dress chosen more for stylish impact than mobility and in a pair of brand new heels just barely broken in? Not so much.  
  
She was almost grateful for the opportunity to duck behind Kurogane’s tall and intimidatingly gorgeous figure as Tomoyo entered the room, and the wry look the other woman sent her communicated perfectly her desire to be almost anywhere else but here.  _Me too, sister. I’d just about put out my left eye to be back in the hotel room and alone with you… and quite possibly bargain away the other one for a bottle of the champagne we had last night to share._  There was no question of what else she’d give for the chance to kiss Kurogane again, and properly too- but when it came down to it, Fai couldn’t see her working up the courage to make that move again, even if it would be favourably received. There was still the possibility she was barking up the wrong lesbian when it came to Kurogane’s interest in her, no matter how badly she wanted all those tells to be truthful.  
  
But maybe her wishful thinking wasn’t merely wishful; she’d caught Kurogane’s gaze on her once or twice since leaving the hotel room, and now the heaviness of it trailed down the length of her spine, pooling thoughtfully at the low-cut back of her dress, and under those eyes Fai couldn’t help but straighten her shoulders to invite more of that attention. It had been a long time since someone looked at her like Kurogane was now, even in passing, and the familiar savour of it was spiced with new and thrilling excitement.  
  
Who knew? There were servers drifting from clique to clique with trays of no-doubt extremely delicious and extremely expensive champagne; perhaps if Fai could get a glass or two and Kurogane alone later on, she might be able to fan the flame promised by the sparks between them. For now, though, her ambitions were limited to surviving the high-class smorgasbord Tomoyo was making a clear bee-line for; regardless of their fancy surroundings, it wouldn’t do for her to forget how she’d ended up here with Mr. Junior CEO and his lethal lady-friend either.  
  


* * *

“I’m kinda surprised you’re letting him wander around so freely,” said Fai later, snatching a glass of champagne tidily off a passing server’s tray, and taking a sip. The bubbles exploded sweetly on her tongue and she sighed happily; she’d never again have the chance to drink champagne this nice, so she was damn well going to take advantage of it while she could.  
  
Kurogane, for her part, was avoiding the alcohol; her drink was mineral water, spruced up with lemon and a sprig of fresh mint. “Well, he’s not really alone- this place is owned by Piffle Corp, and I know most of the employees here. Those guys over there,” she added, nodded in the direction of three dashing young men working at the bar, each with incredibly brightly coloured hair, “are part of the security force that trained at the main mansion. They’re young and a bit rookieish, but they’re good. And those three girls over there,” and another nod, in the direction of three very well dressed young ladies gossiping idly by the center tables, “officially belong to HR but have been working in an intelligence capacity since they were hired as a team. So Tomoyo should be in safe hands, here.”  
 _  
Should be_ , noted Fai; it seemed Kurogane was too wary to declare something perfectly safe even with evidence to suggest so. She guessed it was part and parcel of being a bodyguard in the end; paranoia could work to one’s advantage in such situations. “Still,” she murmured, glancing around their surrounds; there were so many wait-staff it was hard to keep track of their faces, each one fading into a neatly dressed blur as they passed by. “It’s strange to think so many people are after him and you’re here unarmed.” Because there was no holster in sight, and the cut of Kurogane’s dress -wonderfully well fitted, and Fai could kiss her tailor for that- couldn’t possibly disguise one without ruining its silky lines.  
  
“Oh, I’m not unarmed,” said Kurogane mildly, absentmindedly taking a sip of her mineral water as her eyes scanned the room with cool indifference to the wealth so blatantly on display. “The hairpins are a gift from my mother and deadly sharp, I’ve got a flash-bomb in my handbag, knives in the heels of my shoes, garrote wire strapped to my leg and a switchblade in my bra.” Unbidden, Fai’s eyes travelled downwards ( _though if she were being honest, it wasn’t for the first time that evening_ ) across the bodice of Kurogane’s beautiful dress, and specifically its daring neckline.  
  
“Uh.  _Where_?” Because, yes, there was shimmery scarlet fabric in abundance, draped exquisitely over Kurogane’s frame, but there was also a lot of dusky décolletage and perfect, plunging cleavage to spare, the kind that implied one wasn’t wearing a bra at all- or, at the very least, was wearing one of those tiny, stick-on ones to avoid straps and bra-lines. Personally, Fai thought it was really unfair that Kurogane was not only gorgeous and had magnificent abs but that she was also in possession of a bust so wonderful that Fai kinda-sorta- _totally_  wanted to bury her face in it and motorboat shamelessly.  
  
Abruptly Kurogane flushed pink. “You- you want me to show you  _here_?” she blurted, sounding utterly scandalized.  
  
“What?” said Fai, startled- and then realised what she’d been implying. “Fuck, I am so sorry- I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. Except. Um. Maybe later?” she added, because she really couldn’t help herself, and to her surprise ( _and delight, oh, the look in those eyes had potential_) Kurogane not only blushed a shade or two deeper but actually nodded, swallowing hard like she was suddenly short of breath. Not that Fai wasn’t feeling a tad breathless herself, actually. Because there was no way she’d say no to an actual hands on demonstration on how someone so dangerous kept herself armed in an outfit that was so, well,  _dangerous_.  
  
Kurogane took a large swallow of her drink and cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure even if her ears were still touched lightly with pink. “Anyway,” she started, her voice a little husky, “it should be safe for Tomoyo to head home tonight; I’ve been in touch with his father and the mansion has been swept for any signs of infiltration. I guess this means you can head home as well.”  
  
“Yeah, I suppose so,” agreed Fai, stomach sinking. Because of course she had her own life to get back to; she couldn’t linger in this one, no matter how exciting it had been.  
  
Kurogane nodded once, her eyes darting away from Fai and around the room again in a pattern that seemed more nervous than assessing, and Fai blinked at the sight. “So,” said Kurogane, and cleared her throat again. “Um. I was thinking that-”  
  
“Kurogane, have you  _seen_  the seafood they’ve laid out tonight- it’s like Neptune’s Kingdom on a silver platter!” Tomoyo, displaying once more his incredible talent for bad timing and his innate ability to scare the crap out of Fai by appearing from fucking  _nowhere_ , suddenly materialized at Kurogane’s elbow. To her credit, his bodyguard neither squeaked nor jumped -both of which Fai did- but she did startle a little, eyes widening and the spaghetti-thin strap of her handbag slipping off one shoulder.  
  
“ _Fuck_ , Tomoyo. Warn me next time,” she muttered, scowling down at him.  
  
Tomoyo rolled his eyes, and Fai noticed for the first time he was wearing eye shadow in a delicate shade of lavender that perfectly complimented the touches of violet decorating his suit. “You’re not a very good bodyguard if I keep startling you. Maybe you should head back for a refresher course at bodyguard school.”  
  
Kurogane snorted. “No such place,” she grunted. “What were you saying about the buffet?”  
  
Tomoyo beamed. “Lobsters! King prawns! Crayfish and crabs and oysters- those are  _aphrodisiacs_ , you know,” he added with a wink, and Fai could barely stop herself from turning green at the thought. If there was anything less sexy than a slimy mollusk in a shell, she’d yet to encounter it.  
  
“No thanks,” she mumbled. “I’ll stick with the chicken and the salad, thanks.”  
  
Tomoyo looked bewildered. “Oh? Not a seafood lover? Well, you should come and see the rest of the buffet- there’s all sorts of delicious pasta dishes, and a very nice roast rack of lamb. I’m sure we’ll find something to enjoy for all of us. Oh, speaking of,” he added, turning slightly to the suited waiter appearing beside him, drinks tray outstretched. “One glass of champagne, please.”  
  
Kurogane narrowed her eyes, but didn’t say anything as the waiter nodded; Fai had to guess she was unbending just a little, as it was a special occasion. “Of course, sir. Please, enjoy.” Tomoyo took the flute gently, curling his dainty fingers around the delicate stem, and the waiter bowed briefly; the glass Tomoyo had taken was the last drink on his tray, leaving it empty, and he was already headed briskly towards the kitchens once more.  
  
“What was a saying? Oh yes, the roast. You see, they’ve got a chef here who specialises in choosing cuts of meat, so you know it’s always of the highest quality.” He lifted his glass to his mouth to take a sip and froze with it half an inch from his lips; Kurogane’s hand had shot out and seized him firmly by the wrist, her face dark, and her eyes sharp and angry. “Kurogane-?”  
  
“No,” she said flatly, and the commanding undercurrent in her voice thrummed all the way down Fai’s spine like a harp string plucked with a shard of glass. “Give it to me.”  
  
Where before Fai would have expected Tomoyo to protest, the seriousness of Kurogane’s expression made the choice for him; he handed over the flute without a word. Fai watched, fascinated, as Kurogane held it up to the light, staring at the bottom of the glass- and when she grunted in satisfaction it wasn’t a happy sound at all. “I didn’t recognise the server,” she said flatly, holding the flute out so Fai and Tomoyo both could see the tiny grains of gritty silt swirling at the very bottom of the glass, mostly disguised by the fizzing bubbles; a cold chill bloomed under Fai’s skin, sweat prickling the back of her neck at the sight of it.  
 _  
Oh, fuck_.  
  
“This drink’s been spiked, and it was meant for you, Tomoyo,” growled Kurogane. “That waiter came right for us, with just one glass on his tray and Fai and I are both holding drinks. He planned for you to take it, drink it, and then go down for the count. Someone’s gotten to the staff here.”  
  
“What?” Tomoyo gasped, his young face bone white. “Impossible- all staff for the Edonis Casino and Resort have been screened to the tenth degree, and there’s a whole three months of probation they have to go through before they can serve events with a security clearing like this one. No way someone here could be an infiltrator!”  
  
“But they did and they are. Which just means they’ve been planning this for a long while,” said Kurogane flatly. “I’m not arguing, Tomoyo- we’re leaving  _right now_. You’re in danger, and I won’t stand for it.” Her gaze cut to Fai, standing stunned at Tomoyo’s side. “You too. You’re not getting hurt on my watch, either.” Curling one arm protectively around Tomoyo’s small shoulders, she hooked her free hand about Fai’s elbow ( _her fingers warm and strong, a branding heat in the crook of the joint_ ) and tugged them both firmly towards the distant entrance.  
  
“Won’t they notice we’re leaving?” hissed Fai. It seemed like every eye of every waiter they passed was on them, and she couldn’t help but see danger in each assessing gaze; Kurogane said nothing, but her grip tightened just a fraction on Fai’s elbow as she tucked Tomoyo in tighter to her side. Tomoyo, for his part, was eerily calm, as though he’d done this many times before- and wasn’t that heartbreaking to think that someone so young would be so used to their life being in danger for it to become something they were practiced at.  
  
“If we can get to the hallway, we’ll be alright,” he mumbled. “There’s a security panel up by the lounge space we passed; if I enter the panic code, the building will go into lockdown and the police will be called.”  
  
“There’s another one in the kitchen and a third behind the bar,” said Kurogane flatly, jerking her head the tiniest inch in each direction. “I don’t think we’ll get there though.” The waiters milling about the open doors of the kitchen, each of them confused and chatting in a hushed murmur so as to not disturb the guests, suggested something had gone wrong behind its closed doors. “It’s only half a dozen or so servers that I don’t recognise- the rest I know are clean. So if worse comes to worst  _you_  take Tomoyo-” and this with an emphatic squeeze of the hand curled around Fai’s elbow “-and get him to the hallway. I’ll take care of the rest.”  
  
Fear dropped into Fai’s stomach like a stone, grinding up against her insides as it fell- but the hot rush of anger that flashed through her chest helped her bear its weight. Like hell someone so sweet as Tomoyo was getting hurt tonight, not if there was anything small she could do to help. “Right.”  
  
They were maybe twenty feet from the entrance hallway now, and Kurogane’s shoulders were still drawn back tightly; she glared fiercely when a scowling waiter wheeled a conveniently timed trolley in front of it. “Of course,” muttered Kurogane, fingers digging into Fai’s arm. “Of fucking  _course_.” She paused, their small group coming to an awkward stop, and her arm slipped free of Tomoyo’s shoulders. “I’ll get him out of the way- you two run for it-”  
 _  
BRRRAT-A-TAT-TATT--!!_  
  
The booming rattle of gunfire roared out across the room, echoed by screams and the heavy clash of tables and chairs being upturned. Kurogane crashed to the ground, dragging Fai and Tomoyo down with her as the dining hall exploded into a chaos of sound around them. Kurogane rolled as soon as she was down, and the sudden hollow  _snap_  of her shoes losing their heels made Fai gape in amazement as she yanked them off, flowed smoothly to her feet and threw the small daggers hidden inside the heels, pinning an advancing waiter to the wall by his sleeves with a neat  _shnk-shnk_  as the knives buried themselves in the plaster and shuddered.  
  
Fai grabbed Tomoyo, and surged awkwardly to her feet with her arm around his shoulders, wobbling on her heels; the pair of them staggered in an awkward crouch towards the doorway as Kurogane made short work of the three men advancing on them. One went down with a kick to the groin and a knee to the head when he crumpled; the second caught a chop to the throat and dropped with a choked gurgle, and the third and final took a open-handed palm-strike to the face that broke his nose with a sickening wet  _crack_  and left him slumped against the nearest table as he fell.  
  
Kurogane wasn’t even out of breath.  
  
“Holy shit,” breathed Fai. Maybe they could get out of this in one piece-  
  
Which was exactly when two armed men appeared out of  _fucking nowhere_ , grabbing for Tomoyo and wrenching him from her grip, and just as Fai whirled around to snatch him back the closest buffet tables exploded. Shards of broken crockery and bread rolls carried on a concussive blast of air slammed into Fai along with a fountain of fresh soup, leaving her to desperately dive beneath a table as a wave of steaming liquid slopped over the ground, barely grazing her back and shoulders to splash up into her hair; she rolled awkwardly as she landed, smacking her head against the metal legs, and black spots flickered in front of her eyes as someone screamed her name.  
  
“Hang on,” she muttered, “just a secon-,” and promptly passed out.  
  


* * *

  
Fai couldn’t have been out for more than five minutes when she woke, half-covered in a tablecloth and still sticky with cooling soup; she swore soundly when she realised what had woken her: Kurogane’s hands curled warm about her bare ankles and dragging her carefully out from under the table and into the shocking silence of the trashed dining hall.  
  
“I lost him,” she rasped, throat tight. “They took him from me.” Tears pricked in her eyes, hot and stinging, but Fai wasn’t sad- she was fucking  _furious._  
  
“It’s alright,” said Kurogane, kneeling down, and her face was tight with concern as she unbuckled the straps of Fai’s shoes and eased them off her feet. Good idea; with Fai’s head pounding the way it was, she’d probably twist an ankle if she tried to walk in those heels. “They’re holed up behind a bunch of overturned tables across the room with Tomoyo, but they’re not going anywhere.” Her hands came up then, patting open-palmed all along Fai’s sides and across her chest.  _Checking for broken bones_ , Fai realised with a start, and half sat up when Kurogane’s hands reached her head. “The room’s been evacuated; the other staff got the guests out and down the fire escape stairs where they triggered the panic alarm. We’re locked in, and the cops are on their way.” She grabbed Fai gently by the chin, staring deeply into her eyes for a moment. “Blink for me.”  
  
Fai obediently did; Kurogane grunted in satisfaction and let go of her chin. “You’re alright; just covered in soup.”  
  
“Fuckin’ A,” muttered Fai. She didn’t  _feel_  alright, to be honest, and her hands clenched tight into fists as she sat up properly, her teeth gritted and her ears ringing.  
  
Kurogane grinned, and clapped her lightly on the shoulder. “Damn right. You and me, we’re gonna get him back.” Her grin was vicious and sharp, cutting across her face in a wicked slash as she bared her teeth, and somehow, against all the odds there were, it made her look even more gorgeous. In a fuck-with-me-and-you’ll-die-regretting-it kind of way. “There’s a bunch of them hanging out in the kitchen- they’re the biggest threat. The guys across the hall are the only ones with guns but they won’t fire unless we get too close; they’re concentrating on keeping Tomoyo there for now. And they wouldn’t  _dare_  hurt him,” she growled, and it sounded like a threat. “They know I’ll fucking kill them if they do.”  
  
“So we head to the kitchen,” said Fai firmly.  
  
“Exactly. Cut off the head of the snake, and then kick the body around until it stops moving. They didn’t see me, and they’re not stupid enough to think that means I’m dead; they know I’m too dangerous to just up and fucking die in the middle of a hostage situation. And,” she added, her voice rough and angry, “they know if I get my hands on them, they’re done for. So right now, there’s three of them combing the tables, and two more with Tomoyo. With the waiters I already took down, that means the rest of them in the kitchen are the ones they snuck in- and there aren’t more than five of them.”  
  
The way she said it implied the  _only_ , and Fai shivered. She couldn’t ever think of being so dangerous that  _five men_  were barely a threat.  
  
“Come on,” said Kurogane, tugging out some of her hairpins and making a few heavy locks of hair tumble down over her shoulders in a spool of inky softness. The jewelled pins gleamed in her fingers, their points wickedly sharp as she tucked them in the folds of her dress for easier access; it was too easy to picture her ripping them out and stabbing someone with them. “They’re more scared of us then I am of them. Let’s do this.”  
  
It was insane, barely even a plan -get in there and kick their arses- but the slasher smile on Kurogane’s face said she had no doubts it would work, and in spite of herself, in spite of the tight knot in Fai’s chest and the shaking of her hands, she had to believe that if  _anyone_  could get through this, Kurogane could.  
  
“Alright,” she said softly, and clasped the hand Kurogane gave her to tug her to her feet. “You lead the way.”  
  
They ran on bare feet, ducking and weaving and darting between broken tables and piles of smashed up chairs, silent the whole time; in the distance Fai could see the black-clad figures combing the tables, searching in the rubble for the both of them as they snuck along the back walls and to the kitchen. And when the two of them drew close enough, they crouched behind a plinth whose vase had been smashed so that Kurogane could speak. “We go quick, and we go silent- we don’t give them any warning. I need you to stay behind me. I’ll take out as many as I can, and you get the stragglers.” She paused for a second to pull the switchblade out from her bra, darting her fingers between her breasts; its rippled edge shone dully when she flicked it open with a _clk-shnk_. “Use this,” she murmured. “Stick it in the first one who grabs you and twist it- he’ll let go quick enough.”  
  
Fai nodded, closing her fingers about the handle; Kurogane reached across and gently adjusted her grip, her fingers warm where they trailed over the back of Fai’s hand. Her gaze caught Fai, held her still and wondering, and the look on Kurogane’s face was not something she could understand as she slowly, carefully reached out up to brush loose strands of hair away from Fai’s eyes. She didn’t say a word, just turned away, and Fai let out the breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding with a hissing sigh.  
  
“Now,” said Kurogane quietly, and got to her feet in one smooth movement. The only thing Fai could do was follow.  
  


* * *

They burst into the kitchen without a word, Kurogane smashing through the doors with her shoulder braced like a battering ram, and the first man -still wearing a waiter’s outfit, but one that was badly stained and torn at the sleeve- went down when he caught her fist in his stomach, crumpling with a whimper around the handful of razor-sharp pins she’d jabbed into his belly and ripped out again. Blood soaked quickly through his waistcoat, but Fai didn’t have the time to stare as the other four came running for them in one group.  
  
Kurogane grabbed her by the arm and threw her across the room, towards the cook tops; Fai narrowly missed the mass of the men descending on Kurogane and dodged around to end up pressed flat against a rack of shelves by the stove as Kurogane grunted and threw the first one to come against her down to the floor. It didn’t stick; he rolled to cushion the blow and bounced right up again, but by then Kurogane had stabbed one in the neck with her pins, making him roar in agony as he clutched at his throat, and was kicking another in the knees as he advanced, her dress tearing open right up to the thigh with a silken rip as she lashed out with one powerful leg.  
  
Fai might not have been trained as a special forces operative or an assassin or a spy or whatever else Kurogane had been trained to be by her apparently terrifyingly competent mother -and here Fai made a mental note that, should she be so lucky to meet Mrs. Kurogane’s Mum at any point in the future, she would be nothing but faultlessly polite to her- but she wasn’t fucking useless. She’d taken Tae Kwan Do classes for eight years growing up, self defence courses as a young woman living alone, and had spent most of her employed life in the service industry dealing with belligerent or drunk or belligerently drunk customers; she knew how to handle trouble when it came for her. So when a heavily armed man in what was probably Kevlar armor peeled away from the small gaggle surrounding Kurogane, Fai’s immediate instinct was to lash out with the knife Kurogane had given her and watch in horror as it skittered off his armored chestplate with a scraping squeal to drop from her numb fingers.  
  
Her opponent grinned beneath his balaclava, a sickening smug smirk she could see even through the fabric as he advanced on her menacingly, and the cold lump in Fai’s chest cracked open in rage.  _How fucking dare you underestimate me_. Darting sideways and out of his lunging grip, Fai fell back towards the still-lit stove -the heat smouldering through the back of her dress and the delicate layers of fabric crisping around the edges- with her hands out and reaching for something,  _anything_  to even the scales between them and give her a chance to defend herself-  
  
-and because they were currently in a kitchen, her frantic grab for a weapon yielded a cold iron handle to curl her fingers around. Without even thinking about what was attached at the other end, she braced herself and swung.  
  
The weighty  _klangg-!_  of metal slamming into meat and bone shuddered all the way up her arms, but Fai didn’t dare let go, and the sound that burst out of her chest at the sight of her makeshift weapon -a heavy iron skillet, full of stir-fry and fresh from the stove, still steaming with heat- smashing into the balaclava’d face of the man before her was more of a snarl than a whimper.  
  
Kevlar armor was good for knives but not so much being smacked upside the head with a frying pan, and her attacker dropped like a sack of flour, collapsing under his own weight as the blow knocked him unconscious; blood bloomed wetly over the side of his balaclava, soaking black fabric even darker and food was splattered all over the floor. Fai couldn’t really bring herself to care though. Anyone who went after two women ( _regardless of how dangerous said women might actually be_ ) and a young boy with heavy weaponry and a squadron for backup thoroughly deserved everything they got.  
  
Panting, breath whistling angrily through her gritted teeth, Fai spun around again to get back in the fray-  
  
-and saw Kurogane break a man’s nose with three quick jabs to the face, leaving him reeling against a rack of pots and pans with a god-awful clatter and a pained moan. There were only two left, now, both circling her warily. Fai watched Kurogane’s hands twitch towards her torn dress, fingers fluttering open over her thigh and realised with a start she was reaching for her garrotte. Fai wasn’t the only one watching her, though, and one of the men circling around her darted forward in a feint to force her to bring her hands up defensively once more.  
 _  
I have to help her._  
  
Without thinking about how much danger this stupid stunt could put her in, Fai smashed her frying pan down against the closest metal bench with an ear-ringing  _KLANGGG!!_  that shook her arms and made her wince- but both Kurogane’s attackers started and whipped around to stare at her, leaving them wide open for Kurogane to grab one in a head lock and smash him into the nearest bench top with a brutal tackle. The other one gaped in horror as Fai let go of her pan and dove for the knife she’d dropped earlier; praying Kurogane would catch it she grabbed it up from the floor and threw it her direction in one frantic toss.  
  
Kurogane grinned as it whipped towards her face and snatched it out of the air in one impossibly quick movement; her last attacker gaped openly as she flipped it around in her fingers to get a better grip. Before he could even blink, she surged forward to grab both of his wrists in one hand and rammed him back against the wall with a body slam, yanking his arms out and up; he screamed shortly as she thrust the knife through both palms with a vicious stab to pin him against the tile, the sound cut off viciously by a back-hand to the face. He struggled wildly, but only for a second or two before Kurogane kneed him squarely in the gut, leaving him to jerk limply and then go still when the pain knocked him into darkness.  
  
For a long moment there was silence, filled only with the sound of Fai’s erratic breathing; even Kurogane seemed winded, backing away from the bodies of those she’d beaten into sorry, unconscious piles and leaning heavily against the bench top to catch her breath.  
  
“Well,” she said, rubbing one hand over her face and pushing the stray wisps of dark hair that had fallen into her eyes back. “The others would have heard him scream,” and this with a dark look at the body slumped against the wall. “They’ll figure out something’s up quick enough.”  
  
“What do we do now?” panted Fai, still jittery with the wash of adrenaline surging through her blood.  
  
“Catch our breath first,” said Kurogane firmly. “And then go out for the rest of them. We know how many of those bastards are left, and all we have to do is divide and conquer- take them down one by one. It’ll be easier that way- plus it’ll put the fear of me into the other two holding Tomoyo when they realise their friends are disappearing.” Kurogane grinned again, the expression bloodthirsty, and Fai was forcibly reminded of the fact that Kurogane could have killed any of the five men scattered around the room and had simply chosen not to. Which really,  _really_  shouldn’t have been as attractive as it actually was.  
 _  
Okay, so, next on my list of things I really should see a psychiatrist about: my troubling attraction to dangerous women._  
  
“Deep breaths,” said Kurogane suddenly, startling Fai out of her thoughts. “You’re hyperventilating.” She frowned. “Also your dress is... smouldering?”  
  
Fai started, spinning about; the delicate layers of fabric that had made up the floaty skirt of the dress Tomoyo had given her were definitely crisped around the edges, singed and blackened and, yes, still smoking in places- but seeing as she wasn’t actually on fire and the dress had been a noble sacrifice in the effort of keeping herself alive when under attack by an armed man, Fai considered it a worthwhile loss.  
  
“I think it’s alright,” she mumbled. “It’s probably beyond repair, though.”  
  
Kurogane waved a dismissive hand. “Eh, Tomoyo will get you another one if you just ask him. As long as you’re not hurt, though.”  
  
“I’m fine,” said Fai quietly, and was surprised to discover she actually was. Sure, she was buzzing on half a dozen different biochemical cocktails right now, endorphins and adrenaline and all sorts of wonderful tingly signals sloshing between her brain and her blood-  
  
-but she was  _alive_ , and she was helping, and very soon the very dangerous woman that she really, really wanted to kiss breathless would get back the young man she’d come to think of as a friend in the time of their short acquaintance and this bizarre adventure would be over. Which was a  _good_  thing, absolutely; being shot at was really not that great for one’s mental health, not to mention the whole bullets-shot-through-important-places thing too. Fai already had her ears pierced, and her navel too; she wasn’t particularly looking to gain any other holes, especially not the kind delivered down the barrel of a gun. She knew all this, and yet something niggled at her still.  
 _  
Can I really go back to serving coffee every day after this? Am I really okay with going back to my everyday life and pretending this never happened?_  
  
“If you’re not, you tell me,” said Kurogane flatly. “I’m not losing you too.” She crossed the room in three great strides, her hand coming to rest heavy and warm on the slope of Fai’s shoulder, fingers just gently brushing the curve of her neck. “You’re under my protection now, and I’ll be damned if I’m not getting out of here tonight with you and Tomoyo in one piece- and everyone who ever crossed me feeling fucking sorry that they did.”  
  
Her fingers squeezed just once, and Fai’s heart echoed it, clenching painfully in her chest. “Okay,” was what she said though, because Kurogane looked like she was waiting for it, and the hand warm on her shoulder clapped her on the back in reassurance.  
  
“Stay by my side,” said Kurogane firmly. “I won’t let you get hurt.” That sharp gaze was searching, almost too much to bear up under as it tracked over her face, and Fai had to wonder what Kurogane saw in her expression when she nodded and looked away. “Come on,” she murmured, and for all her voice was soft it was no less steely. “Let’s go.”   
  


* * *

After creeping sneakily between overturned tables and the various other bits of broken detritus littering the now deserted dining hall, Fai had a new appreciation for video game characters making their way through stealth levels; it was a lot harder in real life than just holding down ‘b’ and walking in a permanent crouch. The covert approach seemed to be working for them though, especially when Kurogane managed to ambush a bewildered baddie and drag him into the shadows of a wrecked column, holding him still and terrified with the bowls of two silver spoons jammed into the back of his neck as though they were the barrel of a gun.  
  
It wasn’t, of course -not that Kurogane’s weapons being merely  _spoons_  made it any safer, in Fai’s opinion; she probably knew half a dozen ways to horribly incapacitate him with them anyway- but the shell-shocked man Kurogane had captured didn’t know that, and Kurogane was acting exactly like it was besides. This meant he didn’t put up a fight, making nothing more than a pathetic whimper when she wrapped an arm around his throat in a firm lock and choked him into unconsciousness, before shoving his body under the closest table and tugging a tablecloth over him. She tied his hands together too, with strips of torn tablecloth, and then his wrists to his ankles before gagging him with his own balaclava; even if he woke up, he wouldn’t be going anywhere.  
  
The second one she took down with a discarded apron and a surprisingly sharp salad fork, throwing the first over his head and jabbing soundly him in the ribs with the other when she ran out at him. This one she let scream, his shout of pain shocking and loud as it rang across the room -triggering a spray of bullets from the distant side where Tomoyo was being held, rattling pockmarks across the floor and up the walls- before cutting off with a meaty  _whump_  when she took his knees out from under him with a sweeping kick; he fell, blinded by the apron, and she smacked his head into the ground hard enough that he stopped moving before tying the torn cloth around his face with its strings and binding his hands together behind his back.  
  
The grin she shot Fai after that was triumphant, cracking her coldly competent facade right down the middle; in spite of the ridiculous danger of their surroundings -and since when the fuck had Fai’s life had a ‘get yourself unwillingly involved in a hostage situation because a sexy woman told you to’ clause, anyway- she caught herself smiling back, that confidence contagious. Strictly speaking, Fai supposed it should have been arrogance, but then Kurogane  _had_  just disarmed two men with cutlery and a torn apron, not to mention the devastation she’d left in her wake in the kitchen, so a little arrogance was acceptable, if not outright expected in a situation like this one.  
  
Not that Kurogane had fallen into the trap of most action heroes and let her current success run away with her; she approached her final mark with the same caution she had the first two, beckoning for Fai to follow quietly with one hand even as she tracked her prey across the room with her sharp gaze.  _Like a hawk_ , thought Fai.  _She’s just waiting to swoop._  
  
The moment came when the last survivor -unprofessionally jumpy, sweeping his line of sight all about the room in something very close to panic- drew close enough to their hiding place that Fai could see the aglets on his shoelaces. With all the skill of a ninja throwing shuriken, Kurogane whipped a sterling silver platter towards his legs in a shining arc, the tray whistling across the space between them and slamming into the back of his knees like a spinning blade to cut his legs out from under him in one strike.  
  
He fell with a clatter, screaming the whole time- but Kurogane was on him before he could even roll over, slamming him face-down into the ground and twisting his arms behind his back in a painful lock with her knee jammed painfully into the small of his back, her weight holding him neatly in place. She tied him up with scraps of cloth while he was conscious; his curses rang out across the room and the hair on the nape of Fai’s neck stood up when she understood why.  _She wants him to be noisy. She wants the others to hear it and know what’s coming for them._    
  
Kurogane stood up gracefully, leaving the man on the ground to writhe ineffectually, and shot Fai the kind of dangerous grin that should have been terrifying but instead made excitement crackle and burst in Fai’s belly like she’d swallowed fireworks and chased them down with a lit match cocktail: all heat and sparking desire flooding through her in hot waves.  _I should be scared of you- but I’m really, really not_.   
  
“Come on,” said Kurogane, and it was  _unfair_  how stupidly attractive her low, husky voice was; the sound of it alone made Fai’s knees weak. “Two left.” She beckoned with one hand, her eyes on Fai’s face the whole time, and so help her but her steps lightened as she raced to follow.   
  


* * *

They took cover behind the largest buffet table, twisted and wrecked by the explosions that had gone off before but still sturdy enough to be a shield against gunfire, crouching down with their backs pressed against the tattered and singed tablecloth. Tomoyo’s captors were only ten metres or so away; this close, Fai could hear them arguing amongst themselves about how the hell they were going to get out of this mess, their voices raised in raging panic. Tomoyo was silent, though, and that made Fai’s stomach twist.  
  
“You’re not,” she muttered furiously, as though they could hear her. “Not in one piece.” Fai liked to think of herself as relatively easy-going; live and let live, and all that jazz, and honestly she was too lazy to make a big deal out of most things. It took a lot to make her this angry, angry enough that she felt her fists ache with the need to hit someone, but the bastards that had stolen Tomoyo away from them and were holding him captive still had managed it without even trying.  
  
She started a little when Kurogane’s hand landed warm on her shoulder. “Hey,” the other woman murmured warmly. “It’ll be alright- he’s just fine, I promise you.” Fai couldn’t see how she could be so sure of it, not with all that had happened- but there was no doubt in her face and her eyes were fierce and confident when they met Fai’s own. “Trust me.”  
  
It was on the tip of her tongue to fire back with  _I barely know you and you barely know me how the fuck do you think I’m supposed to trust you_  but she didn’t; bit it back, chewed it up and swallowed down the bitterness. Because Fai  _did_  trust her, that was the thing; trusted her far beyond what she should for how long they’d known each other, trusted her almost as much as she wanted her, and at this point Fai wanted her so damn much she was just about ready to go mad if something didn’t happen soon. Fuck, she didn’t even know Kurogane’s  _last name_  or her birthday or even what her favourite colour was -though she had a hunch it was probably red- and yet here she was, making as though to go to war on her behalf. It made no sense, and yet,  _and yet_.   
  
“Trust me,” said Kurogane again, and God help her, but Fai did.  
  
She was quiet after that, listening long enough to make out the end of the argument coming from the other side of the room, and Kurogane seemed to be waiting for a sign of some kind, her face pensive and head cocked towards Tomoyo’s captors as though to hear them better. She stayed like that for a little while, dark hair tumbling in tangled locks down her shoulders and her eyes sharp and focused as they stared into the distance; even without knowing what she was thinking, Fai could tell she had a plan, and when Kurogane finally looked back over at Fai and smirked, she could feel a grin twitching at the corners of her mouth in response in spite of herself.  
 _  
Guess it’s finally go time._  
  
Kurogane dragged in a deep breath, tipping her head back and closing her eyes briefly. “Tomoyo!” she bellowed suddenly, making Fai jump, and  _damn_ , the girl had some lungs on her. Her voice carried right across the room, ringing and clear like a bell being struck. “Are you okay?”  
  
There was a brief scuffle of sound, followed by a yelp and an  _“Ouch! Little bastard bit me!”_ before Tomoyo managed to call out _“I’m fine, Kurogane- but I lost one of my shoes!”_  
  
“No one cares about your fucking shoes!” shouted Kurogane, but the affection was obvious in her voice even so, and the look she shot Fai was clearly relieved; the tension that had corded all through her shoulders all but evaporated, and while she wasn’t anywhere close to relaxed -how could anyone be in this situation, honestly- she no longer looked like a crank wound too tight and ready to snap. “Thank God,” she mumbled.  
 _  
“I care! They’re four hundred dollars a pair!”_  
  
“Fucking hell,” was the only possible response to that, Kurogane sliding back down against the turned-over table they were huddled behind and crouching next to Fai once more. She pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand, breathing deeply and slowly. “Remind me why I’m trying to save his skinny arse again?”  
  
“Because you promised to keep him safe,” said Fai gently, unable to help the smile that tugged slowly at her mouth. “And because you love him.”  
  
“Yeah,” sighed Kurogane, tipping her head back against the tabletop, her tangled hair falling about her shoulders and her remaining hairpins twinkling in the dull light from the broken overheads. “Yeah, I do, brat that he is.” She closed her eyes for a brief moment and then abruptly stiffened as they flew open, her expression frozen; confused, Fai opened her mouth to ask something -what she didn’t know; had Kurogane gotten hurt and Fai not noticed?- and was cut off by an abrupt cough.  
  
“As a  _brother_ ,” said Kurogane, softly but with some urgency. “Or a bratty little cousin. That’s how- that’s how I love him. Just so you, uh, know.” She wasn’t looking at Fai while she said it, and as a dusky pink touched the tips of her ears Fai felt warmth spread slow and sweet through her belly, like she’d just swallowed a spoonful of liquid sunlight and it was lighting her up from the inside out with its golden glow.  
  
“I know,” she said, and couldn’t hide the happiness in her voice. Kurogane nodded stiffly and swallowed just once.  
  
“Good. That’s, that’s good. That you know.”  
 _  
If you could possibly get any more adorable than you are right now, I think I would self-combust_ , thought Fai, filled with amusement and affection that was powerful for all that it was sudden. However, apparently Kurogane had reached her limit for being cute for at least five minutes and had to switch back into badass bodyguard mode to maintain her reputation, as she abruptly grumbled something under her breath and dug around in her tattered handbag where she’d tossed it at her feet.  
  
“Tomoyo!” she shouted, pulling out something in her clenched fist. “Keep ‘em closed!”  
 _  
“Okay!”_ came the cheery shout from across the room, and then whatever it was went sailing overhead as Kurogane stood and sent it flying with one smooth, powerful throw. The abrupt silence as it fell was punctuated by a rattling burst of bullets firing as Kurogane ducked down, and then someone behind them screamed.  
 _  
“Shit! She threw something! IT’S A GRENADE!”_  
  
“Flash bomb,” said Kurogane mildly, as it went off behind them with an ear popping  _thoom!_ The burst of light was brilliant and searing, but they were far enough away and behind enough debris, the pair of them crouching down beneath the twisted wreck that had once been the buffet table, that it was only bright and nothing else, just making Fai squint for a little bit until it faded.  
  
“That should get rid of some of them,” said Kurogane firmly, when the flash had faded.   
 _  
“My eyes! My fucking eyes! I’m blind!”_  
  
“Night vision goggles,” added Kurogane, smirking. “The light in here got dim once the overheads blew, but not  _that_  dim- they were asking for it by wearing them.”  
  
“Huh,” said Fai, because she’d seen people do that in spy movies, but never in real life, and this was quite possibly the most surreal conversation she’d ever had on a Sunday evening, and that was including the time she and Hokuto got drunk on absinthe and watched French art house films until four in the morning. “Is it permanent?”  
  
“Depends on the make of the goggles and the strength of the flare. But those bombs are pretty good- I stole that one from the R & D down at Piffle Corp.” The barrage of bullets continued on unabated for a while longer, tearing out across the dining room in erratic, badly aimed bursts. “You know, instead of going back to finish your PhD you could always come and work for us- er, the company. If. If you wanted,” Kurogane added, a tad awkwardly. “The guys in the lab were saying they need more help, especially with the chem stuff.”  
  
There was a long moment where Fai simply stared at her, head ringing with the sudden realisation that Kurogane not only knew she was studying chemistry, but that she’d deferred on finishing her doctorate and was still wondering what on earth she was supposed to do next.  
  
“How?” said Fai quietly, and it was as though the noise and chaos around them -the screams of the men blinded across the room, the gunfire; the debris littering the dining hall, the state of each of them, battered and singed and covered in soup in Fai’s case and only marginally better in Kurogane’s own- had faded into a distant, background hum.  
  
“That friend of yours is a strange one,” said Kurogane quietly, when the spitting rattle of bullets seemed to have died down somewhat. “But he figured out pretty quick I was more interested in hearing about you then I would ever be in him.”  
  
Fai stared some more, shocked out of speaking ( _as if she had the words for it, silver-tongued all her life and now left stunned and silent when she needed it the most_ ), and before she even knew why or how her face felt suddenly hot as her blood surged upwards to pool burning in her cheeks. Because Kurogane had  _asked_. Asked about  _her_ , and Hokuto was a shameless gossip yes, but that was not the kind of information he’d volunteer without good reason. Saucy tramp that he pretended to be -and actually was, on some shallow level- he was also the best judge of a person that Fai had ever met, dating from right back to the day they’d first met and he’d declared  _darling, you and I are going to be the death of this town_  before Fai had even finished making his order. And if Hokuto thought Kurogane was deserving of knowing even a little bit about Fai, beyond the surface persona and the barista bullshit, then maybe Fai’s chances were so much better than she’d thought.  
  
“I’ll talk to Tomoyo, maybe. When we, when we get him back,” she mumbled, trying and failing to tear her gaze away from Kurogane and safely down to her hands, twisting handfuls of her ruined dress nervously.  _Say something! Say anything! Open your mouth and speak, for fuck’s sake! She’s giving you a goddamn gilt-edged invitation- what are you, a coward?_  
  
“You really do look nice in red,” blurted Fai, because fuck, she was  _useless_  at compliments. Besides, it was completely true, even if it was inane and absolutely the sort of thing that one would say if one were a tongue-tied dork talking to a pretty girl for the first time.  
  
“Uh,” said Kurogane, and stared. And  _flushed_ , a glorious dusty pink burning over those lovely cheekbones and colouring the tips of her ears. “Um. Thank you?” she added, after a long moment where she could barely meet Fai’s wondering gaze.  
 _  
Oh God,_ thought Fai softly.  _I could eat you up with a spoon. One of those long-handled, polished silver parfait spoons, the kind you get in high-class ice-cream parlours... and I’d take my time about it too_. “You’re welcome,” was what she said though, because really, what else was one supposed to say when the six-foot-something probably-assassin that one really,  _really_  wanted to do debauched things to blushed so prettily at a compliment?  
  
“I mean it,” she added, because Kurogane was still staring. “That dress looks fantastic on you, even with the, uh, tear.” It wasn’t really the rip that Fai had been looking at, honestly, but rather the long line of a gorgeous leg beneath it, the silky stocking stretched taut over the lean muscle in Kurogane’s thigh, the gleam of torn scarlet against her dusky skin and-  
 _  
Holy fuck, I think that’s a garter_. It was too, all black and lacy and delicate, and it was an honest struggle for Fai to fight off the urge to drag it down that beautiful leg with her teeth.  
  
“Tomoyo commissioned it,” muttered Kurogane, still blushing, dark brow creased in consternation. “He always says I should dress more femininely.”  
  
“I think you can dress however you like,” said Fai firmly, because really. The way Kurogane wore those perfectly tailored suits was all but illegal, and she’d always been partial to badass ladies regardless of what they were actually wearing. “You still look-” _like something I would sell my soul for, like someone I’ve been dreaming about from the moment I first laid eyes on you, like exactly the kind of woman I would give anything to see in my bed_  “-great.”  
  
“Um,” said Kurogane again, lips parting on the sound; her eyes widened slowly and a sudden, thrilling swoop of excitement coiled in Fai’s belly when Kurogane swallowed, teeth tugging gently at the soft swell of her bottom lip. “You too.” There was no way she could have actually meant it, considering the sticky remnants of what was probably the most expensive soup Fai had ever encountered was still crusted in her hair, and the gorgeous blue dress Tomoyo had insisted she be stuffed into was all singed and blackened around its edges- but that fierce gaze was still heavy on her face and Kurogane... Kurogane wasn’t looking anywhere else even with the chaos all around them.  
  
Fai licked her lips, just once, just because; Kurogane’s eyes sharpened, flicking down and back up again urgently.  
  
“Ah, fuck it,” she mumbled throatily, “I’m no good with this kind of crap.” And before Fai could blink -before she could gasp, or shiver, or even begin to think  _oh, fuck, yes, finally_\- Kurogane reached out with one warm, strong hand to curl her fingers around the nape of Fai’s neck ( _fingertips callused and hot, burning like a brand against skin that seemed too small, too tight_ ) and pull her close enough to kiss.  
  
And it was one  _hell_  of a kiss, those lips -soft and chapped and perfect,  _oh_ \- urgent and demanding against her own, and it was all too easy for Fai to surrender to the hot rush of Kurogane licking into her mouth in a way that suggested she had more than merely kissing on her mind, strong fingers tangling in her hair regardless of the mess caked in it, and tugging her into place as though she’d like nothing more than to hold Fai there from now until the end of time.  
  
Fai wasn’t ashamed of the needy groan that escaped her when Kurogane’s teeth grazed her lips, or the way her hands had unerringly landed on the most deliciously firm arse she’d ever had the pleasure of touching -her fingers squeezed eagerly, and the cute little noise that escaped the woman whose pert behind she was currently grabbing a double handful of was utterly delightful- but when she realised she was, in fact, crawling into the lap of the only person that could get her out of this situation alive with every intent of tearing her clothes off and ravishing her in the middle of the wreckage-strewn floor, she had to jerk back suddenly because  _goddamn_ , that was a really good way to get them both killed.  
  
Their lips parted with a wet sound, Kurogane’s mouth half open and kiss-swollen, her burning eyes heavy lidded ( _that gaze smouldering, the rasp of her heavy breathing hungry_) and for half a second Fai thought that maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad if this was the last thing she ever got to see. Except,  _no_ , that was a stupid thought, because if they got out of this alive she might even get the chance to see Kurogane  _naked_ , and  _that_  was a chance worth dying for. Living for. Whatever.  
 _  
Deeps breaths, darling, and think with your brain. She’ll still be impossibly hot when you get out of this mess, and you’ll both be alive to celebrate it._  
  
“Uh,” was what she said though, because apparently having a gorgeous woman kiss the breath out of you also meant your cognitive speech functions went bye-bye and didn’t stop to wave.  _Pull it together, would you?_ “Wow. Uh. I liked. I liked that, with the. You kissing me.”  _Great, now I sound like she gave me a concussion, not kissed me stupid. Way to go._  “Um,” and this time Fai wasn’t even thinking about it when she licked her lips, still trapped in the memory of how good it had felt when Kurogane’s lips had parted eagerly against hers, easing her mouth open with a confidence that should really be appreciated. “Can you do that again?”  
  
Kurogane was quiet for a long moment, long enough for both of them to hear inquisitive noises from the other side of the dining hall- from where they were still locked in a standoff with the armed bastards who had kidnapped Tomoyo,  _fuck_. She’d totally forgotten all about that, and that was horrible, because Tomoyo was lovely and didn’t deserve the way he’d been treated, and the woman who Fai had been desperately groping five minutes ago was  _actually supposed to be saving him._  Shit.  
  
“Never mind,” chirped Fai brightly, her whole face flaring red again, but more from shame this time; she could feel the heat even beneath the cold, sticky mess that dripped down from her hair and guilt knotted in her stomach like a tangled lump of wool. “Let’s just rescue the prince and call it a day, huh? Once we get Tomoyo back and kick the bad guy’s arses -or should we kick arse first, I’m not sure- we can just forget this whole thing happened and get on with our lives-”  
  
“I want to,” said Kurogane suddenly, cutting her off mid-babble. “I want. To kiss you again. Later.” There was something honest and open in her voice, her face, and despite the ridiculousness of their surrounds Fai felt her heart thump urgently at that hushed confession. One hand reached for her, strong and dark and trembling a little, and Fai sighed as it curled gently around her cheek, Kurogane’s thumb brushing her lips with such delicacy that Fai felt like she was something rare and infinitely precious.  
  
“When this is over,” murmured Kurogane, soft and slow and terribly intimate, and Fai could not look away from those eyes,  _oh,_ “I’m going to kiss you again. And I’m not going to stop.”  
  
The assurance in that statement bolted down her spine, throbbed in her belly, sent the blood in her face spiralling down,  _down_  in a dizzy rush of delighted arousal. Fai’s smile turned wobbly, unsteady with desire and her breath catching just a little in her throat- she hadn’t felt like this in so long and even if this went nowhere, even if this was all she ever got, it would be enough to fuel her fantasies for months. Except she wanted so much more than this, except she wanted  _everything_.  
 _  
Oh,  fuck. Oh, just fuck me right now. Just lay me down on the ground and fuck me until I scream your name. I don’t even care that we’re in the middle of a gunfight. Sorry Tomoyo, but needs must- and I need this woman like I haven’t needed anything for such a long time._  
  
“But first,” said Kurogane firmly, her hand falling away and her fingertips trailing down the pulse racing Fai’s throat in a surprisingly tender caress, “I need to go and do what I’m paid for.”  
  
She stood then, one swift movement upwards with her torn dress swirling about her legs; she grabbed a handful of damaged fabric, brilliant bloody scarlet spilling between her fingers, and tore it away with a shocking  _rrrrrrip-!_  that made the hair stand up on the nape of Fai’s neck. With legs bare and her dress torn Kurogane had never looked more dangerous, and when she grabbed a nearby broken seat and wrenched off a twisted length of metal that had once been a chair leg, hefting it in a tight grip over her head, Fai was not surprised to hear a panicked shriek from the other side of the room.  
 _  
“Fuck! The bitch is coming!”_  
  
“Stay here,” said Kurogane firmly, ignoring the hubbub. “If they try and get past me with Tomoyo you’re my last line of defence.” And with that she was gone, planting both hands on the barrier of wrecked tables in front of them and vaulting neatly over the top, disappearing into the chaos on the other side of it with a terrifying roar of defiance that, if enemy forces had been meeting it on the battlefield five hundred years ago, probably would have left them shaking and standing in reeking puddles of their own piss.  
 _  
I think I’m in love._  Fai sighed dreamily- and then promptly snapped out of it. Now was not the time to lose herself in fantasy like a schoolgirl in heat; she could do that much later, hopefully after she’d gotten the subject of said fantasy alone and naked somewhere near a bed. Or a rug; she wasn’t fussy. Now was the time to gird her loins and grab a hold of the much-abused frying pan lying beside her and prepare herself for anyone stupid enough to try and make a break for it. Somehow, though, with that violent grin on Kurogane’s face still fresh in her mind, she didn’t think there’d be any survivors.  
  


* * *

It was over pretty damn quickly after that.  
  
Not that Fai was really surprised. Kurogane had charged over the barricade like a soldier on the front lines, yelling all the while; it seemed impossible that anyone could stand in the face of the terrifying figure she presented, magnificent in her torn dress and with her dark hair in disarray, the blood-thirsty daughter of some warrior goddess howling for revenge- and true to her prediction, Tomoyo’s captors had capitulated with more of a whimper than a scream, begging for mercy as soon as Kurogane vaulted over the wrecked tables with her makeshift weapon in hand like a divine spear.  
  
She emerged triumphant barely five heart-pounding minutes later, Tomoyo slung over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry; the cheeky grin and thumbs up he shot Fai as Kurogane made her way through the broken tables and chairs littering the room was almost as reassuring as the sight of him in one slightly bedraggled piece, soft hair in floppy disorder and fancy tuxedo torn and tattered where’d he been dragged through the wreckage. Kurogane had said he’d be fine, and so he was, but it didn’t stop Fai’s heart squeezing in sheer relief to see the proof with her own eyes. And then Kurogane was grinning at her, brilliant and burning where victory lit her up from the inside out; she was beautiful like that, enough to make your blood burn hot, and any words Fai could have said died a blissful death right on her tongue.  
  
What  _did_  surprise Fai, however, was how quickly the private war the two of them had fought together became a full-on battlefield, complete with media circus; the cavalry showed up not two minutes later, sirens ringing through the distant parts of the casino, and just as Kurogane finally reached where Fai was waiting, an actual SWAT team burst into the room, torches blazing and guns primed, followed just as quickly by EMTs and a horde of camera men. Everything fell into absolute disarray then, as the police swept the building for the poor bastards Kurogane had decimated, and the reporters started their newscasts, both parties interrupted as a tall man in a nice suit -who Fai later learned was Tomoyo’s father, going mad with worry after spending the whole weekend fretting about his darling baby boy- stormed across the dining hall and all but snatched Tomoyo from Kurogane’s arms.   
  
Fai herself was cornered by a first-responder medical officer, a woman with a stony face and sleepy eyes who was nevertheless absolutely determined that Fai wasn’t going to get away from her with anything less than proper medical treatment for the cuts and scrapes she’d sustained without noticing, and it took her a good five minutes to weasel her way out of being sent home in an ambulance with an escort. All she wanted to do was get back to Kurogane and Tomoyo; to congratulate the first on her triumph over the forces of evil, and the latter to see for herself that he was really, truly okay- but of course things weren’t so simple, not with policemen asking for statements and confirming the rest of the casino’s guests had been evacuated safely, not with Tomoyo’s kidnappers being hauled up to face the cold light of justice, bruises and all, and certainly not with the media swarming all over the place like bees on honey.  
  
Already there was a distance between them, one built by the crowd that held them apart; it was too easy for Fai to fade out of sight, to fall back and merely watch as Kurogane’s attention fell to the aftermath and how her ward could get through it unharmed. And if Fai felt unsettled and jealous at how easily the other woman seemed to forget her presence, well, she already _knew_  how easy it was for her to lapse into pettiness, already knew how demanding her emotions were when she let them have full reign; it wasn’t as if it was something new to her, after all, this hurt in her chest ( _made worse for all that it was undeserved; made worse by how she talked herself into it, moment by moment, without regard for truth or logic_ ) an old friend she’d gotten to know so very well over the years.  
  
So when Fai made to leave -sneaking past the police and the medics, dodging the oncoming media storm and heading back down the empty halls alone- it was no surprise at all that no one tried to stop her. And because she was so wrapped in her thoughts on how to leave quietly, how to slip away undetected -how to believe that everything she’d done had made no impact on those she’d come to care for even over so short a timeframe- she  _didn’t_  see Kurogane turn back to find her, didn’t see that sharp gaze search the crowd in growing frustration for the sight of her familiar face; didn’t and couldn’t understand the determination that lit a spark in fierce eyes as they looked for her and found her gone.  
  


* * *

“And then what? You can’t honestly tell me that’s it,” grumbled Hokuto, slouching against the counter and crossing his arms in much the same way he always did when denied fresh gossip.  
  
Fai sighed at the coffee cups and rolled her eyes, in much the same way as she always did when Hokuto pouted. “And then nothing,” she said dryly. “The room was swarming with police and reporters- and it wasn’t as though she was going to sweep me off my feet and ravish me while she was carrying Tomoyo through the wreckage.”  
  
It was Tuesday again, after closing time and quiet, and things were mostly back to normal at the Cat’s Eye Cafe- insofar as anything in Fai’s life could be called normal, i.e. her choice of friends. And she was  _not_  thinking about the two customers that should have been seated at the table in the far corner by the kitchen, no sir, and if you’d told her she was putting off turning the closed sign around even after she’d already put up the chairs and turned off the coffee machine - _again_ , and how sad was it that it was becoming a regular thing for her when she had better things to do than languish in a coffee shop of all places- she would have slapped you.  
  
She was still doing it, though, polishing glass after glass even though they were clean, folding napkins and alphabetising the boxes of tea leaves by brand and secondary flavour- anything to delay closing the doors ( _anything to delay the disappointment_ ) for just a little longer.  
  
“But you just lived through an action movie!” Hokuto cried dramatically, throwing his arms up like a man dying for an Oscar nomination. If anyone else had been there to see, he would have drawn bemused stares but as it was there was only Fai, and she felt too tired to indulge him overmuch. “There was sexual tension! Explosions! A siege! Improbably luxurious clothes- and I’m still mad at you for destroying what was so  _obviously_  an Oscar de la Renta original before I even got to see you wearing it, just so you know,” Hokuto sniffed, his voice dripping with disapproval. “You set over a thousand dollars worth of exquisitely couture’d fabric on fire, Fai; you should consider yourself grateful I’m even  _speaking_  to you right now.”  
  
“I didn’t set it on fire! I just... singed it a bit,” protested Fai. “Also I’m pretty sure Tomoyo took pictures before that happened. And  _anyway_ , I notice that while you clearly paid attention to the bit about me letting my fancy clothes get scorched you made no comment about the  _very dangerous men that tried to kill me_.”  
  
“Well, from everything you’ve said Kurogane took care of that with considerable aplomb and a handful of hairpins.” Hokuto flapped a dismissive hand in true limp-wristed style. “Though credit where credit’s due, darling- well done with that skillet. I’ll never look the same way at my cookware ever again.”  
  
Fai stared for a long moment. “Should I be worried you know where your kitchen is? You know what happened the last time we let you loose with a recipe book- Subaru may never recover.”  
  
Hokuto blew a raspberry with his perfect pout. “Oh, ha- _ha_. This from Ms. Pudding Snacks and Rum. When was the last time you even ate a proper meal?”  
 _  
Sunday lunch down on the resort deck, and it’s the company that I remember most, not the food, no matter how good it was; Tomoyo laughing that weird giggle-snort he has when something really gets him going and Kurogane looking so cool with those sunglasses on she should have been gathering condensation- and me, wondering how in the hell I was suddenly there with these people in my life, and slightly terrified of how much I wanted to keep them._  
  
Fai swallowed, throat suddenly dry. “I don’t remember,” she managed, and each word was a mouthful of sand she had to choke up.  
  
Hokuto’s eyes narrowed. “Really,” he said tartly, and could not have sounded more disbelieving if he’d tried. “Well, that doesn’t surprise me. For someone so clever, you’re not so smart when it comes to taking care of yourself.”  
  
If Fai had been stronger she would have waved it off, come back with something scathing and witty to deflect the blow- but right now she wasn’t and the words pierced her clean through, the blow shuddering home in all the soft places she’d left exposed, and it wasn’t something she could handle at this moment. “Please don’t,” said Fai quietly, and Hokuto stared at her. “Not today.”  
  
This time Hokuto just frowned, neat eyebrows furrowing in the middle and eyes so worried it hurt to see them, and Fai was grateful when tinny jingle of the doorbell cut off anything he could even start to say, no matter how much he thought she needed to hear it. Without thinking Fai forced her smile to something several degrees more cheerful than she actually felt, leaning past him to chirp out “Welcome to the Cat’s Eye! Make yourself at home!” before he could make more than a single frustrated sound. He had more to say, she knew that for sure- but as soon as Fai was looking past him, she’d completely forgotten about Hokuto and his well-meaning protests.   
  
Because there, standing in the doorway, was a woman: tall and dark and radiating the kind of menace that Fai understood now wasn’t merely for show. Her hair was tied neatly back, ponytail spilling in a long, glossy fall of loose waves over one broad shoulder, and the cut of her fringe framed her face -sharp and fiercely beautiful- perfectly. She wasn’t wearing a suit like the first time Fai had seen her, or a brilliant scarlet dress like the last; just jeans and a shirt, both well washed and comfortably faded, and a black leather jacket that swung around her shoulders like a knight’s cloak. Her lips -which Fai knew from experience were surprisingly soft- quirked into something that could barely be called a smile, and when she spoke her voice was throaty and low.  
  
“Hey,” said Kurogane, as though Fai hadn’t slipped away without a goodbye, as though Fai hadn’t done her best to forget how desperately she’d wanted to see her since Sunday night. She was grinning now, white teeth flashing between her smirking lips, one dark eyebrow cocked teasingly.  
  
“Hi there,” said Fai pleasantly, politely, as though butterflies were not presently dancing the rumba around her ribs and she didn’t feel the urge to leap over the counter to grab Kurogane by the throat- to kiss or strangle, she couldn’t decide. “So. What can I get you?”  
  
Kurogane grinned again, and this time the heat of her expression spread slow and dark and perfectly filthy across her gorgeous face, the luxurious fan of her eyelashes as she blinked a striptease for the  _want_  in her eyes. If Fai’s insides hadn’t been liquid before, they were damn near  _molten_  now, hot and seething in her belly as her blood spiralled down, down,  _down_  and took any chance she might have had at coherent thought with it. “Well, what I really want is a  _Dirty Weekend_ ,” Kurogane murmured huskily, and behind her Hokuto coughed urgently, making significantly obscene gestures that only Fai could see towards the menu boards as if to say  _she ain’t talking about the drink, honey!_  
  
“That said,” continued Kurogane, and here that predatory look in her eye was tempered by a hopeful spark, softening to something almost hesitant -and how wonderful that was, that she could bring that out in someone so skilled and self-assured- in beautiful counterpoint to the brashness Fai had come to know, and  _wow_  she could really see where Tomoyo had gotten the idea that Kurogane had been shy from now. “I’d settle for a date, first.”  
  
There was a question, there: in the graceful curve of her neck as her head tipped gently to the side; in the quirk of her lips as she half-smiled, and the only answer Fai could really give ( _as her heart soared, wings spreading joyously wide and fluttering blissfully in her chest_) was for her to lean forward dangerously far over the counter, plant one hand firmly on polished wood for leverage and use the other to grab a good handful of Kurogane’s shirt, hauling her in for the kind of kiss one only saw in the movies: tender and yearning and  _perfect._  
  
It was so good, in fact, that any smart comment she could have made simply faded away beneath the rush of it, the ecstatic panic of her thoughts quieting to sudden static and leaving her shivering with delight. Fai’s hand rose up from the counter, slowly; her fingers trembled against Kurogane’s chin before growing confident once more, sliding sure over the slope of her cheek and threading into the silky fall of her hair to take a firm hold and pull her closer still. And Kurogane let it happen, let herself be drawn down; let her mouth fall open and groaned softly as Fai licked past her lips, one hot hand suddenly curling about the back of Fai’s neck and squeezing with eager impatience as the edge of hunger bled over into something very like desperation.  
  
If time could stop like this, just like this, freeze this moment and keep it going for all eternity, Fai for one would be facing the rest of forever with a big smile on her face- and one that she actually  _meant_ , no less.  
  
Except even through eyes closed Fai could still see the brilliant pop-flash of Hokuto’s phone, camera clicking and whirring as he snapped a picture of the two of them mid-snog, and Fai managed to prise her eyelids open just enough to shoot him a glare, one that clearly said  _I’m having a moment here, would you kindly fuck off and take your camera with you_. Hokuto being Hokuto, he of course ignored her; by the time Fai had gathered her wits about her enough to ease the kiss to a close -more difficult than anticipated considering that Kurogane kissed like a conqueror, one determined to leave Fai a smouldering wreckage no less, and under that onslaught Fai was  _this close_  from all but begging to be invaded- he’d apparently already uploaded it to Twitter.  
  
“Will you look at that,” he murmured, apparently ignorant of the two women eyeing him with murderous intent. “You’re already trending. Tomoyo just retweeted it- he’s got you hashtagged as ‘AboutDamnTime’, by the way,” Hokuto added, looking up with the kind of innocent smile that, if directed at the right man, would have started a war several hundred years ago.  
  
Kurogane stared at him for a long moment, clearly struggling with controlling the emotions warring across her face. “I can’t decide if I want to break your nose or lock you in a storage cupboard,” she said slowly, and Fai was absolutely not watching the wet shine of her lips as she spoke, her mouth kiss-swollen and distractingly red, nope, not at all.  
  
Hokuto winced theatrically. “Ooh, not the  _nose_ , darling- I’m far too cute for that. And I haven’t been in a closet in  _years_ ; I promise you I’ll fight like hell if you try and push me back into one.”  
  
“I’m leaning more towards refusing to serve you caffeine for the next three months as punishment, myself,” said Fai flatly.  
  
Hokuto looked appropriately horrified and contrite at this statement, but by then Kurogane was already moving on; apparently she’d decided the best way to deal with Hokuto’s particular brand of sassmouth was to ignore it completely, and as soon as she looked over at Fai, the sharp angles of her face softened with what was rapidly becoming Fai’s favourite smile. “What I wanted to say before short and annoying over here interrupted-”  
  
“I’m not short, I’m petite!”  
  
“-was that I didn’t catch you before you left on Sunday and that I wanted, uh,” she swallowed now, almost looking away before clearly forcing herself to hold Fai’s bewildered gaze, “that, well, do you think we could. Um. Do dinner sometime?” That Kurogane was more than capable of utterly destroying anyone that chose to stand against her -and had, in fact, done just that two days ago, leaving a tide of groaning bad guys and star struck police in her wake- due to her sheer badassery and yet was currently eyeing Fai hopefully, looking just a little bit awkward as the tips of her ears turned a gentle pink and she licked her lips nervously, was quite possibly the most endearing thing she’d ever seen.   
  
This woman had just kissed her breathless, left her gasping and shivery with the sheer  _want_  that threatened to buckle her knees and leave her puddled dizzily on the floor- and here she was, looking as though Fai saying yes was not a foregone conclusion, but something Fai could gift her if the mood took her. It’d been a long time since anyone had looked at Fai like that.  
  
Fai sighed, the sound a soft and happy exhale as she pulled her apron off and dropped it on the bench; her store keys followed with a discordant jangle, Kurogane looking on in befuddlement as she slowly stripped all of her workday accruements away and stepped out from beyond the counter. It felt like a weight lifting from her shoulders, a relief so palpable that Fai couldn’t have helped the grin even if she’d wanted to. “My apartment’s three blocks away,” she said brightly, cocking one hip against the bench. “Why don’t we skip dinner and go straight to dessert?”  
  
Kurogane blinked, just once, her smile falling away- and then it was back and a thousand times dirtier, hot and triumphant and lighting her eyes up like the dawning sun. “I have a motorbike,” she said huskily, and her words sounded like the kind of conspiracy Fai could really get involved in. “And rooms at the Edonis Hotel.” She reached out, closing one hand about the crook of Fai’s elbow, and her fingers were warm but firm as she tugged Fai just close enough for the small distance left between them to crackle with potential. “I brought a spare helmet,” she confessed, eyelashes falling to half closed and her expression several degrees hotter than merely  _smouldering_. “I felt like I might get lucky tonight.”  
  
“Oh, you will,” said Fai cheerfully. She couldn’t have stopped herself from closing that gap, stepping close and curling her arms up and around Kurogane’s waist, splaying her hands gleefully wide over the slope of her back to feel the trembling potential in the taut muscle beneath her touch- so she  _didn’t_  and simply let herself enjoy the way Kurogane murmured something soft under her breath, reciprocating in kind to let a big, warm hand come to rest at the arch of Fai’s hip, warm fingers fluttering beneath the edge of her shirt and tightening her skin with the sheer possibility of their presence.  
 _  
Oh, yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. I’m going to have to buy Tomoyo a whole bottle of champagne for making this possible._  
  
Somewhere in the background, Hokuto huffed an exasperated sigh. “While this is as lovely as new blossoms in spring, I feel like I should point out that before you decide to run off with Ms. I Have A Motorbike here,  _you_  still have a shop to close up,” and this with a perfectly-manicured finger jabbed elegantly in Fai’s direction. “And I’m not doing it for you, either- I’ve wasted enough of my evening watching you mope about whether or not your angel in a leather jacket was going to come in and sweep you off your feet, thank you very much.” He tilted his head to the side and smiled sweetly then, and the wicked gleam in his eye would have made a lesser woman dive for cover. “I’d call in sick for tomorrow now, by the way- judging from the way your young lady here is looking at you, you’re gonna be  _far_  too shagged out in the morning to even tumble out of bed let alone walk all the way to work bowlegged.”  
  
“No one asked for your opinion,” snapped Fai, aware that she was blushing, and even more aware that Kurogane’s hand ( _big and hot and a little rough at the fingertips, so very sure of itself as it slid over her skin_ ) was slowly drifting around to cup her arse through her jeans, apparently oblivious -or at the very least arrogantly disregarding- of the man eyeing them both with amusement. “Give me the damn keys.”  
  
Hokuto sniffed at her, turning his cute nose up, but Fai couldn’t bring herself to get more than just a little pissed at him, especially not when Kurogane chuckled softly, leaning down to press a kiss against the curve of her neck below her ear and whisper “I’ll get the lights” against tingling skin in a warm breath that made Fai’s toes curl even in her ratty sneakers.  
  
When all things were said and done, Fai supposed it wasn’t the  _worst_  way to end a Tuesday- and judging by the gleam in Kurogane’s eye ( _hopeful and fierce and full of sinful promise_ ) it looked like things would only be getting better from here on out.  
  
 **~the end.  
**

**Author's Note:**

> There are rumours that I am writing a porny sequel to this, because apparently I can't help myself. These rumours are completely true.


End file.
